As the rains intensify, Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, has called on residents to desilt their gutters to avoid flooding and further displacement of residents.
Executive Secretary of SEMA, Dr Emmanuel Shior, made this call on Friday, in Makurdi, during the monthly distribution of food and non-food items to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs in the state.
Shior, who advised the people to stop dumping waste in water channels, further advised them against building on water ways saying, “although people were recalcitrant, SEMA would not relent in its campaign at sensitizing the populace to that effect especially in urging that they desilt their gutters to allow free flow on water channels.”
He said SEMA in conjunction with National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, have identified high-risk areas in the state and placed them on red alert.
He assured that with the support of NEMA and other partners, SEMA would be able to tackle the issue of flooding, in the event it arise.
Shior, who lamented the huge humanitarian and infrastructural crisis in the state, said fresh attacks by armed herdsmen on communities in Logo Local Government Area of the state, last Wednesday, has displaced 463 persons.
He lamented that the spate of attacks on Benue communities has taken a toll on state coffers because the federal government has put all its attention in Bornu, turning a blind eye to the plight of IDPs in Benue.
While he assured that Governor Samuel Ortom was committed to catering for the needs of the IDPs, Shior said it was costing the state so much to provide for the needs of IDPs in the state, adding that the state would require about N500 million on a monthly basis to cater for the needs of the ever-increasing number of IDPs in the state.
He said, “We need about N500 million to take care of the basic needs of the IDPs on a monthly basis. Food is very very expensive; a truck of 25kg rice which is about 1,200 bags costs about N18 million.
“What we have here is not enough to go round. So in terms of purchasing food items that would be enough, we need approximately N500 million monthly to buy enough food items for the IDPs.”
For the month of August , SEMA distributed trucks load of bags of rice, sorghum, millet, cassava flour and cartons of noodles.