Floods Claim 363 Lives, Affect 7m

Director-General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Muhammed Sani Sidi, has said that last year’s flood devastated homes in over seven states, killed 363 persons across the country, and affected over 7 million people while 2.3m people were totally displaced.

Speaking in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State at the closing ceremony of the 2013 Ex-Ebinye Rin, a civil-military operation to assist flood victims in the state, the NEMA boss said about 780,000 property and homes were damaged and destroyed, noting that Bayelsa was the worst hit during the flooding.

The Commanding Officer, Nigerian Air-force, Mobility Command Bayelsa State, Air Vice Marshal Olufemi Idowu, who also spoke at the ceremony advocated the establishment of Aero-Maritime Logistics in three Niger Delta States of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa to support the air operations of NAF in the region.

AVM Idowu said this becomes necessary because of low land nature of affective states in order to support flight operations in terms of emergencies.

The exercise he said, has provided much needed data for its operations, despite the airlifting of medical personnel and relief materials to the eight local government areas of the state that were devastated by last year flood.

AVM Idowu who described the two weeks exercise as successful, said over 10 patients, including four children were evacuated to Lagos for surgeries in various ailments.

The commanding officer said, a total of 741 personnel were airlifted to various places during the programme, and noted that the objective of the civil military operations was to showcase and improve NAF image amongst the people of Nigeria in general.