About 16 persons have lost their lives in the flood disaster that ravaged about 10 local government areas of Jigawa state recently, the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has confirmed
The executive secretary of the agency, Dr Haruna Mairiga who made the confirmation while fielding questions from newsmen in Dutse on Wednesday said over 3,834 families were rendered homeless as 2,744 hectares of land were washed away by the flood.
Dr Mairiga disclosed that already the state government has created a number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps all at primary school buildings in all the 10 affected local government areas.
The executive secretary noted that the floods took the agency by surprise, even though NiMET and NEMA predicted the occurrence of the disaster, “but it started earlier than predicted time”.
According to him the affected local government areas includes Buji, Kafin Hausa, Auyo, Hadejia, Birniwa, Gwaram, Malam Madori, Garki, Taura, Suletankarkar, Kaugama and Dutse.
Explaining further he indicated that some of the victims are still squatting with their relatives.
Mairiga pointed out that the government through the agency swung in to actions by dispatching it’s personal to take the statistics of the level of damage, while the Agency distributed relief materials to the victims.
According to him the agency has distributed relief materials to the affected victims with 400 bags of rice, 400 cartons of Spaghetti, Maize, Mosquito nets, sacks for embarkment among others, adding that the government has established an emergency committee which is the first of its kind
“Governor Malam Umar Namadi led administration equipped us with all necessary materials and logistics. We have enough relief materials for onward distribution to the affected victims.
This he said is inspite of the fact that some of the warehouses were vandalised and looted by irate mob during the nationwide protest.
He commended the state governor for his timely intervention in assisting the affected victims across the state.