By Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has commenced the distribution of relief materials to the victims of 2022 flood in Kwara State.

The distribution of the relief materials was flagged off by Kwara state Governor AbdulRahaman AbdulRazaq who was represented by his deputy, Mr Kayode Alabi.

Items distributed to the beneficiaries included agricultural inputs, food items, sewing machines, grinding machines, mosquito nets and mattresses.

In his remarks, the Director General of NEMA, Mustapha Ahmed, who was represented by Mr Ephraim Tony, Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the agency, said the federal government approved the intervention specifically for people affected by the 2022 flood disasters as well as those classified as the most vulnerable persons across the country.

Ahmed recalled that the 2022 flood disaster devastated many communities across the country, including Kwara State, where most of the people in the communities were displaced and their farmlands and crops completely washed away by water.

“Following the flood, search and rescue operations were successfully conducted in several locations where trapped persons were rescued and given necessary care. Immediately after the flood incident, damage and loss assessment were conducted and relief items approved by the federal government were delivered across the states to complement initial intervention by the state government.

“Furthermore, based on the assessments which were jointly conducted by the NEMA and State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs), the federal government approved this special intervention to assist vulnerable persons across the country and those affected by the flood to support their quick return to normalcy.

“This intervention is also expected to drive the sustainable socio-economic resilience of the targeted most vulnerable individuals. NEMA staff were deployed to conduct the verification of the target beneficiaries in collaboration with personnel from SEMAs, State Agricultural Development Project and other relevant stakeholders. A total of 660,884 Households were verified and targeted to benefit from this special intervention across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT)”, Ahmed stated.

The NEMA boss advised the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the items distributed to them to improve their socio-economic conditions.

He thanked President, Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shetima for all the supports given toward the implementation of the intervention.

For his part, Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who was represented by his deputy, Mr Kayode Alabi, commended the effort of the federal government through NEMA for what he called ‘this timely intervention’ .

AbdulRazaq, who urged the beneficiaries to ensure a judicious utilisation of the items, reiterated the commitment of his administration towards supporting all programmes that would be directed towards alleviating the socio-economic hardship of the people of the state.

Ends