From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Kebbi State government has constituted a 16-man committee over an imminent flood disaster that might hit Bunza Local Government Area of the state from the Central Guinea region, Futa-Jallon.
Commissioner for Information and Cultures Alhaji Ahmed Yakubu confirmed this while briefing newsmen after the state executive council meeting over NiMET prediction of imminent flooding that may affect Bunza Local Government Area of the state.
He explained that the Governor of the state, Dr. Nasir Idris, summoned the State Executive Council meeting to deliberate on the issue.
According to him, “I’m here to brief you today about the key issue deliberated by the state executive council meeting at Government House chamber. One of the issue discussed affect the people directly. We had a warning from Nigeria Institute for Metrological and Training (NiMET) last week warning us of imminent flooding from outside the country and once it hit Nigeria, Kebbi will be affected first.
“As a result of that, we discussed on that, then Executive Governor, approved that constitution of the high power committee to quickly going into action and identify the source of the flooding that is coming, identifying the routes that would be pass through, taking prompt measure to avert it and safe guide the communities and to liaise with the communities and religious leaders in the respective communities where the flood would affect and listen to the difficulties that the people might faced.”
The commissioner disclosed that, the flood according to the NiMET, would start from Central Guinea (Futu-Jallo), passing through Senegal, to River Gambia, to Niger and landed in Bunza Local government area.
“We are working on the forecast, which is 100 percent certain. But, obviously, it going be likely. We were warned that, from Central Guinean, there is this region call Futa-Jallon, it will move to River Senegal, River Gambia , they all source water from the same place and from that island, they will pass through other countries before coming to Nigeria and through to Kebbi state. Bunza LGA is likely to be most hit by the flood. But as a responsible government, we are taking precaution measure in order to look at it at a whole, how many communities are at the risk and take the preventive measure and put necessary things to cushion the effects.”
He recalled that, of recent, Maiduguri has been hit by the flood, stressed that, the state government had learnt a lot of the lesson from the incident.
The commissioner disclosed that the 16-man committee tagged “Safety crisis committee and prevention on impending flood disaster”, would be chaired by the Deputy Governor of the state, Senator Umar Abubakar Tafida, comprises of commissioners of various ministries as well as Executive Chairman of the SEMA.
He added that the committee, which would kick off their work with a meeting at the Deputy Governor’s office, would take all the precautionary measures to protect the affected communities from health hazards that could follow the flood and safety of the children and vulnerable people at the area.
