Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development Sadiya Farouq gave the highlights during the weekly ministerial briefing hosted by the Presidential Communication Team in Abuja.
Farouq also disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the release of 12,000 tonnes of grains to the flood victims.
She reeled out efforts by her ministry and the National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) in mitigating the effects of the disaster.
Her words: “You may recall that we have a Presidential Committee on Food Security. Now, we are doing the assessments of those farmlands that were destroyed and we’ll submit our report to the food security council chaired by the President.
“Once that is done, we’ll know the next step to take, but definitely, farmers will be compensated for the loss of their means of livelihood.”
According to her, Jigawa State had 91 out of the 612 deaths recorded, and Anambra, 77. Out of the 3,219,780 persons affected by the floods, Kogi State had the highest number of 471,991 persons with no death..
She dismissed claims of poor response levelled against her ministry by some people, including Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, saying that 28 states and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) had received both food and non-food items from the Federal Government.
The minister said: I’m carrying out my duties to the best of my abilities. It will interest you to know that Bayelsa State is not even among the 10 worst hit. I think Jigawa is number one and we have taken intervention to Bayelsa State and it’s still ongoing. We’re using the Nigerian Air Force to access the inaccessible areas.
“These are natural disasters, we just hope and pray that we don’t see that again. It is a global phenomenon and the government is up and doing in this regard.
”I’ve mentioned that we have officers in all the states and they are supporting the states officials to give support to these victims, where it is possible for us to visit, we have visited, but the most important thing is the response which we have given; a very quick response for the states affected.
“We have erected temporary shelters, about 44 of them in 22 states, some people moved to those shelters, while others did not, very unfortunate and I think at this point, I quite agree that there should be enforcement going forward.
“We’ve mentioned 12,000 metric tons that were given to us by the Ministry of Agriculture, but that is in addition to other interventions, it’s not just the 12,000 metric tons. If you look at it, I didn’t mention rice and other food items and even non-food items that we have provided. So it’s not just the 12,000 metric tons that were provided.”
Pointing out that a flood emergency preparedness plan, was approved by Federal Executive Council in September, Farouq extended her ”condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.”
