NEDC pledges to contain flood incidents in North-East

 

The North-East Development Commission (NEDC) has pledged to contain future occurrence of flood incidents in the North-Eastern parts of Nigeria.

Mohammad Alkali, the Chief Executive Officer, NEDC, made the assurance in Bauchi on Wednesday when he led officials from the commission on a condolence visit to Gov. Bala Mohammed over the recent flood incidents in the state.

The commission was also in Bauchi to distribute food and non-food items to victims of flood and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state.

Speaking, Alkali, who is also the Managing Director of the commission, said that NEDC had been proactive in its activities, saying that on August 19, during the World Humanitarian Day celebration in Maiduguri, it donated food and non food items to be distributed to the six Northeastern states.

He explained that this was made possible with the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari through the Presidential Committee on Repatriation, Return and Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons of the commission.

According to him, NEDC is working round the clock to synergise with all the state governors in the region in order to contain future occurrence of flood and to further improve the standard of living of IDPs.

“One of the objectives of the visit is to commiserate with you and the good people of Bauchi state on the recent flood disaster that affected some parts of the state and by extension, the North-East.

“We wrote a letter to the state government to see how we can synergise to contain the situation in providing preventive measures in the future and the state government articulated its position.

“Its position is to also see what we can do to contain the situation and to provide preventive measures to see that this kind of ugly situation should be contained or prevented in the future.

“I assure you that we are going to work in that direction to see that we contain flood situations in the future,” he said.

Alkali, who stated that the commission had donated the items in Borno, Yobe and Gombe states, listed some of the items to be distributed in Bauchi to include; 10,000 bags of rice (25kg), 5,000 pieces of blankets, 5,000 mats.

Others he said included; 3,000 gallons of vegetable oil, 5,000 women wrappers, 3,000 cloth materials for men (Shada) and 3,000 children’s wears.

Responding, governor Mohammed appreciated President Muhammadu Buhari, NEDC and the Humanitarian Ministry for the show of courtesy and sympathy to the North-East region.

He said that NEDC is one of the best legacies President Muhammadu Buhari will leave behind for Nigeria.