*Says FG should establish Benue Development Commission
By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
Following the alerts issued by the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), that twenty one out of the twenty three local government areas of the state would be affected by flooding coupled with statements from the United Nations Residents and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria that the level of human disaster in Benue State surpassesl the situation in the North East, the Congress of Idoma Journalists Worldwide has called on the Federal Government to take urgent and concreted steps to ameliorate the impeding disaster which may rise from the flood and establish a commission in order to avoid a looming disaster.
The call by the body was contained in statement signed by the Secretary General of the group, Okpani Mike Odeh Akatu on Saturday and made available to the press in Abuja.
According Okpani Akatu, the Federal Government should as a matter of urgency, consider relocating residents of flood affected communities to safer grounds while it embarks on the immediate dredging of River Benue and removing embankments along the the Benue valley
“We know that every year, the Benue valley becomes submerged by the waters from River Benue, it does not have to be so again.
“We call on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, commence the process of relocating residents of flood affected communities to higher abd safer grounds before September.
“Furthermore, the government should commence the immediate dredging of the Benue River starting from the mouth of the river to the lower section.In addition to that, FG should see to it that debris and other embankments impeding the free flow of the river should be removed.
Okpani Akatu also called on the Bola Tinubu administration to start the construction of flood control dam at the upper section of Benue River around the Yola axis.
“At this time of the year, the Cameroonian authority would normally empty the waters from Lagbo Dam into the Benue and that is the major cause of the flood .It is therefore necessary for the Government to construct a dam that would hold up the waters release from the Ladgo in Cameroun.
The Secretary General of the apex Idoma group further urged the Federal Government to create a Benue Development Commission in order to rehabilitate the over two million farmers and others, who were rendered homeless due to incessant attacks by bandits abd foreign herdsmen
In his view, “to rejuvenate agriculture in Benue State which is the breadbasket of the nation, we must have a commission called the Benue State Development Commission
“It is only when farmers in Benue are fully rehabilitated,returned to their farmlands and empowered, then food production in the country would take an upswing, it is in this regard that we deemed it fit to call for a commission established by the Federal Government to do the needful,” the statement said.
