Flood Kills 14 Persons In Niger State

Flood Kills 14 Persons In Niger State

No less than 14 persons have so far died due to flooding in different part of the state, says the Director Relief, Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji Garba Salisu.

Salisu, who made this known while speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Minna, added that the agency had engaged the services of no fewer than 200 local divers in affected communities for rescue operations.

According to him, the local divers would complement the efforts of agency rescue unit whenever the need arose.

Salisu also appealed to residents of the state to desist from building on waterways and to stop the indiscriminate dumping of refuse to reduce the effect of flooding in the state.

He also urged communities experiencing gully erosion to relocate whenever the threat of flood became high.

“My major fear is that, most rains usually fall at night when people are sleeping, but the only way is to create an environment for smooth flow of water’’, he said.

The director also called on communities that are prone to flooding to, as a matter of urgency, vacate the area temporarily to avoid disaster.