By Daniel Tyokua
The Director General National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, AVM Muhammadu Muhammed (retd) has disclosed that 68 people have been killed with 129, 000 others affected by flooding in 2020.
He stated this on Monday in Abuja during the opening of ‘2020 flood after action review technical meeting’ with State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) and other key stakeholders.
The Director General said, “The devastating impact of 2020 flooding killed 68 people, affected 35 states including FCT, 320 Local Government Areas and over 129,000 people.
“The incident led to loss of lives, it destroyed houses and washed away farmlands across the country thereby having negative impact on food security” he said.
Muhammed explained that the devastating impact of the disaster destroyed houses and washed away farmlands in 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory ,FCT,
He urged the stakeholders to evolve measures that will assist in curbing cases of disaster.
The DG admitted that some SEMAs are being faced with low capacity and use of ad-hoc staff causing inconsistency in response coordination with NEMA and relevant stakeholders.
He pledged the Agency’s determination to support SEMAs to build their capacities and enhance their response capacity.
Muhammed called on the stakeholders to focus more on coordination, policy and procedures, strategic level multi-agency coordination and decision making, training and staffing, preparedness and contingency planning, information and data collection.
According to him, the Agency has been provided with all the necessary support by the President Buhari’s led government, and there was no reason for non performance.
The event bring together state chairmen of Emergency Agencies, security personnel and other strategic stakeholders.
