Kogi: Flood displaces 73,000 people in 9 LGs - SEMA

Floods have displaced about73,000 people in nine local goverment areas of Kogi State, according to Mrs alice Ogedengbe, Executive Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA).Ogedengbe told newsmen on Tuesday in Lokoja during a visit to the camps of the Internally-Displaced Persons(IDPs), that the release of water from Kainji dam in Niger, Jebba dam in Kwara, Shiroro dam in Niger and Lagdo dam in Cameroon caused River Niger to overflow.``The most affected local government areas are Ibaji, Ajaokuta, Lokoja, Kogi and Kotonkarfe which have about 20 IDP camps with over 7,378 people.``All the primary schools in Ibaji have been taken over by the IDPs,'' she said.Ogedengbe said people whose houses were not affected by the flood were exploiting the situation to collect relief materials from the camps.She said, however, that the camps had not recorded any casualty since the crisis.She called on the Federal Government to urgently build a new dam that would channel the flow of water into different rivers instead of accumulating into River Niger alone.She, however, thanked some Nigerians who have been supportive by providing food and other materials to the displaced people.
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