Posted on January 11, 2023
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has urged the Federal Government to urgently dredge Rivers Benue and Katsina-Ala to check the perennial flooding of the State and parts of the country.
The Governor made the call Monday in Makurdi, when he received the Presidential Committee on Flood and Disaster Management, led by Prof. Emmanuel Adanu who visited the state.
He commended the Federal Government for setting up the committee headed by a renowned professionals for the management of flood disasters in the country, noting that it was a step in the right direction.
He ssid “for us in Benue State, the greatest mileage to mitigate the flood disaster will be to dredge Rivers Benue and Katsina-Ala. As long as these rivers are not dredged, we will continue to have the problem.”
The Governor recalled that he was aware that the Government of late President Musa Yar’Adua awarded a contract for the dredging of River Benue, stating that the contractor did not execute the job and its status dhould be investigated.
While commending the Federal Government for the initiative of ecological funds, the Governor appealed to the government to do more to tackle ecological problems.
He urged the Presidential Committee to do its best on the assignment, stressing that “if there are findings and you want to advise the state, we are ready to work with you.”
He particularly requested the Federal Government through the Committee to offer incentives to farmers who lost their farms in the recent flood disaster which ravaged the state and other parts of the country.
The Governor used the moment to congratulate the Chairman of the Committee who is a Benue son on his appointment and thanked the President for giving him the opportunity to serve in that capacity.
Earlier, Chairman of the Presidential Committee, Prof. Adanu informed the Governor that they were in the state as a technical working group to assess the damage caused by the recent flooding which ravaged the country including Benue State.
According to him, the mandate of the committee was to interact with stakeholders with a view to developing a masterplan for the prevention of the flood disaster which was becoming a perennial occurrence.
He pointed out that Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi and States were flood track and Benue State will be particularly studied and captured appropriately in the report of the Committee, adding that the target was to “put economic value to flood control, management and reorganization.”
