14 November 2008
Lagos — More than 500,000 people in Southern Taraba State are at risk of being choked by poisonous gases emanating from the Lake Nyos bordering North-western Cameroon.
An expert at the Taraba State College of Agriculture, Jalingo, Mr Biyos Adamu, told the News Agency of Nigeria yesterday in Jalingo that the areas on the danger list included Takum, Donga, Ussa and Sardauna Local Government Areas.
Adamu said research findings had shown that the lakewas capable of releasing poisonous gases.
He said during the last eruption in 2005, more than 5,000 people lost their lives while property and animals worth millions of naira were destroyed in villages near Lake Nyos.
He criticised the absence of detecting gadgets to provide early warning signal to the inhabitants about the imminent danger.
All attempts to get comments from the Taraba State Commissioner for Environment proved abortive, but a source in the state's Environmental Protection Agency, said it had not taken any practical steps to deal with the danger.
The source added that a move by the agency to install early warning gadgets in Ussa and Takum Local Government Areas failed.
The source said the agency had directed the affectedcommunities to report any unusual condition for the immediate evacuation of people.
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