The National Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission has warned people living along river banks in Kogi State to relocate to high grounds.
This, the agency said, was to avoid devastation that could arise due to impending floods as predicted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency.
The Managing Director of N-HYPPADEC, Sadiq Yelwa, warned on Sunday during a sensitisation campaign to the palace of Ata Igala and Eje-Ibaji, seeking their support to move people living along river areas to the high ground.
Yelwa, who described the flood as a natural phenomenon that nobody could stop, said the menace of flooding in prone areas could only be managed to reduce high devastations, as witnessed in 2022 in Kogi and other states across the country.
“We are at the forefront of giving early warning to all the N-HYPPADEC communities. We have been sensitising and calling on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency because of the warning we received from NiMet and the signs of flooding we have seen or heard from the locals.
“The situation is alarming and scary, that is why the commission is calling on members of N-HYPPADEC communities to be wary of the situation, to be alert and not to go to bed at night with their eyes closed, because flooding can occur even in the night.
“We have visited Ata Igala and Eje Ibaji, we have been advising, appealing to traditional rulers, youth and community leaders to help us prevail on the people living along river base and channels to move up land until when the situation improves.
“We have also procured two boats for Ibaji communities which will be commissioned and put to use next Thursday,” the MD said.
The MD led technical teams of the commission and that of the Kogi State Ministry of Water Resources to the moribund Idah waterworks in the Idah Local Government Area of the state, abandoned since 2012.
He assured the people that N-HYPPADEC, in collaboration with the Kogi State government, would resuscitate the one million-litre capacity per day waterworks to serve the people of Idah and its environs.
The Eje Ibaji, John Egwemi, commended N-HYPPADEC for the assistance often rendered to his communities often ravaged by perennial flooding and solicited for the construction of a road from Idah to Ibaji.
The Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Water Resources, Omakoju Alhassan, expressed confidence that from the analysis given on the moribund Idah waterworks and the proposed intervention of the commission, it would be brought back to life to end the scarcity of water in the ancient town.
PUNCH
