Story from Ahmad SAKA, Bauchi
A heavy downpour accompanied by strong winds and furious floods that wreaked havoc in 11 local Government Areas of Bauchi State has killed eight persons. It also swept away 57 villages and 567 people.
Coordinator of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Dr Abubakar Umar Gabarin, stated this on Thursday while briefing newsmen in Bauchi, He said three people died in Ningi, three died in Gamawa and one person died in Jama’are and one person lost his life in Toro Local Government Areas.
Gabarin said farms, livestock, and other properties over N200,000,000 were lost to the menace.
He said they are still counting losses but this is the report so far on their hands and they will submit the report to the state Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir to assist the victims.
On his part, Director of Research and Statistics of the Agency, Adamu Nayola, said the agency advised people of the state residing at waterways to relocate to safe areas before the peak of the rains. It also warned that they have about three months to prepare against the disastrous effects of the flood.
Adamu said people should avoid swimming in the river whenever they see heavy downpours because they don’t know what the river brought; sometimes it comes with sharp objects that will injure and kill people.
The duo lamented that the majority of the victims are regular victims affected by flood annually because they refuse to vacate the riverine areas and many of them live in the weak building and blamed the flooding on natural disasters and poor drainage systems caused by uncontrolled physical development.
They said many of the victims are yet to relocate despite signs of more rains and the victims said they need government support to get new homes. you can see the results besides the high number of casualties recorded, many houses were submerged, others collapsed, several farmlands submerged just as foodstuffs and livestock were also lost.
Some of the victims that spoke to our reporters said they have never seen such an impact from flooding in their areas, our houses and farms were submerged, and that she lost valuables such as personal documents, animals, and foodstuff.
“We lost so many things. We need help and assistance from the government and good samaritans for us to be able to return to normal life.”
Bauchi State Governor Senator Bala Mohammed who visited regular Yankari behind Departments of State Security Services School directed the State Ministry of Lands and the ministry of housing to pay the people residing at the waterways compensation and demolish their houses in order to ease the problems of the people.
Governor Bala directed the tractor company and state and federal Ministries of Works to repair the collapsed bridges in Ningi within one week to help people to continue with their land transportation and appeal to the Federal Government to assist the state and repair all the roads leading to the state.
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