Following an increase in the rate of casualties as a result of devastating floods across the country, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) has said that the state governors should take the responsibility.
According to NEMA, over 300 people have been killed by devastating floods across Nigeria in 2022, while hundreds of communities have been submerged in Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Kogi, Jigawa, Kano, Sokoto, amongst others.
The emergency management Agency stated further that thousands of residents have been displaced and hectares of farmlands washed away.
NEMA Director, Onimode Abdullahi, said that state governors must take responsibility for what has happened.
According to him, town planning and waste management boards should have acted before the water overflowed the communities in their states and relocated residents from lowlands to higher grounds and safe zones.
“We need political will to drive this process at the sub-national level. It is unfortunate the flood has happened and the people have been moved out. It is hoped that with the lessons that will be learnt from the flood of 2022, the political will be strengthened to avert this kind of occurrence in the future,” he advised.
NEMA also warned that the 2022 flood disaster will be worse than that of 2012 when at least 363 people were killed and over 2.1 million people were displaced by floods.
