Niger Distributes N40m Relief Items to Flood Victims 

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The Niger State Government has presented relief materials made up of food and non-food items worth N40 million to the recent flood victims in Kontagora town of Kontagora Local Government Area to ameliorate their sufferings.

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, who directed the distribution of the items to the victims, also directed them to move out of their present abodes and relocate to safer grounds.

Bello, who was represented at the sharing of the items to the victims by the Commissioner for Local

Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Kabir Abbas Musa, noted that failure of the affected people to move out of the flood area may expose them to similar experience before the end of the rainy season.

Bello said Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) predictions on the rainfall pattern this year should not be ingnored in order for the people not to suffer unnecessary disaster.

The distribution took place at the palace of the Emir of Kontagora and had in attendance the Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Sani Mamman Lafya, and the Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency, Alhaji Ahmed Inga.

The Emir of Kontagora, Alhaji Muazu Barau, who was represented by the Madakin Kontagora, Alhaji Aminu Ahmed, expressed gratitude to the government for the gesture, saying that the sharing of the relief items showed the government appreciates the condition the victims have found themselves.

The items distributed were 300 50 kg bags of rice, 200 bags of maize, 150 25-liter jerry cans of palm oil and 150 jerry cans of vegetable oil.

The items also included 600 textile materials, 300 blankets, 300 mats, 50 bags of salt and 50 cartons of Maggi.

Two people lost their lives, while not less than 150 houses were destroyed and  scores of people displaced in the flood which accompanied four days of heavy rainfall in the town on September 1.

Most of the victims are now squatting with their relations in different parts of the town.