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By Our Correspondent in Minna
Not less than 150 communities in Niger state are now under water as a result of flood, the Governor of the state,Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has disclosed.
He added that 20 out of the 25 local government areas of the state were affected by the flood, occasioned by heavy rains this year.
Governor said this while exchanging views with newsmen in Minna.
Bello blamed the development on the opening of the spillway gates of the three hydro dams in the state; Shiroro, Jebba and Kainji dam, each spilling well over 6,000 metric litres of water every second.
He described the challenge as the first of its kind in the history of the state.
The lamented that the N80 billion worth investment by Sunti Sugar Company in the state had been washed away by flood, leading to several hundreds of farmers and staff of the company losing their jobs,
Bello,who noted that the magnitude of the disaster bedeviling Niger state had gone beyond the capability of the state government to cope with, and therefore called for interventions from the federal government and well meaning international agencies.
The magnitude of the natural disaster, Bello said, was the outcome of four different committees dispatched to assess the extent of the flooding across the state, pointing that the flood also claimed some lives.
Bello said, “We have been crying out but no one appears to be listening to us.”
He,therefore, suggested the establishment of “Special Intervention Fund” to support the state in addition to asking the federal government to make the Hydro Power Producing Areas Development Commission a reality.
Bello said that he had started consulting with the governors of Kwara, Kebbi, and Kogi states on how to ensure the immediate take-off of the Commission.
On electricity supply to communities in the state,Bello blamed the Discos for the problem facing consumers.
He noted that the Abuja Electricity Development Company (AEDC), despite support from the government which include granting the company loan, had failed to provide meters for consumers but instead continued to give estimated bills to them.
“They AEDC says people are refusing to pay for electricity consumed, but I say they are refusing to pay because they cannot pay for what they did not consume, ” the governor said.
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