Declare state of emergency on flood-ravaged states – Obi tells FG

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has called on the federal government to declare state of emergency on all states recently affected by flood.

Obi made the call on Wednesday in Taraba State where he went to sympathize with the victims of the flood disaster.

Obi, who visited the various locations affected by the disaster in Ibi Local Government Council of the state, was also observed to have beckoned at the government to adopt the global best practice that would help in desilting all its waters to avert a recurrence of floods.

Piqued by the havoc wreaked by floods across the nation, he said, “We are calling on the government to come with interventions, declare all the affected states a disaster area.”

Believing that it is not too late for the government to arrest the situation, he argued that “what the federal government has to do to stop this is to ensure that the waters are desilted.”

The candidate, who was of the view that water bodies or rivers ought to contribute to the wellbeing of the people, felt dejected that the rivers have become sources of calamities, the situation which believed can be reversed.

He admonished other presidential candidates to as a matter of urgency suspend their campaigns by assisting in raising awareness regarding the predicaments of floods victims across the country.

Several communities in Ibi, Lau and Karim-Lamido local government councils of the state, it would be recalled were recently submerged by floods following heavy downpours that lasted several hours in the aforementioned councils.