Nigeria: Maiduguri Flood - Some Residents Still Trapped - Ndume

An aerial photograph shows the flooding situation in Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria on 12 September 2024.
16 September 2024

The senator representing Borno South, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has asked the federal government to dredge communities affected by flooding in Borno State to ease out water so that residents who are trapped can be rescued.

In a statement on Monday in Abuja, Ndume said most residents trapped in their communities were yet to be rescued.

Recall that many residents were killed, some trapped and many others displaced while houses and farmlands were submerged by flooding that wrecked havoc in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, last Tuesday, following the collapse of the Alau Dam.

Sequel to this, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the sum of N3 billion as intervention fund to cushion the effect of the disaster.

But days after, Senator Ndume, who donated N50 million to victims of the flood following a resolution by leaders from the Borno South senatorial zone to raise funds for the victims, said: "We really need to help make sure that people do not continue to suffer. Some of them have been in their houses for the last six days.

"What the federal government needs to do is to come and do the survey and get dredging equipment and get to the discharge of the Alau Dam and try to excavate the water way out so that the water can flow and go otherwise the aftermath will be more disastrous.

"Most buildings that were submerged are not strong, and if they continue to stay in water, they will collapse. Most people trapped in their communities are still there because it is only boats that the Nigerian military, other security agencies, and the state government are using to rescue people there.

"I am using this opportunity to move a motion since we are on recess for the federal government to intensify action against the plight of the victims of the insurgency."

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