NASARAWA State Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA) says it has concluded arrangements to begin the distribution of relief materials to 17 communities in five Local Government Areas (LGAs) affected by the 2024 flood.
The Director General of the agency, Mr Zachary Allumaga, disclosed this at a news briefing in Lafia on Thursday.
Allumaga said that the agency only takes responsibility for the distribution of building materials to flood victims, whose houses were affected as well as those of fire disasters in the state.
According to him, the distribution of building materials is part of the N3 billion earlier received from the Federal Government to assist the victims of flood in the state.
He said that the state was prone to flood because of its proximity to River Benue, which bounds five LGAs of the state.
Allumaga listed the affected LGAs to include Awe, Nasarawa, Toto, Lafia and Doma.
“NASEMA is responsible for the distribution of non-food items, like building materials, cement, zinc, and nails, among others.
”We are transporting these materials to the affected LGAs and communities for onward distribution to the beneficiaries,” he said.
The NASEMA boss further spoke on the farmer-herder crisis in the state, saying that the phenomenon “has reduced drastically, except for occasional encroachment of herders into farm crops by some bad eggs, which is usually resolved by district heads.
“My first priority is to stop the crisis of any kind, not the distribution of the relief materials. I think that should be a seldom thing to do.
“Ranching is the solution to the farmer-herder crisis in the state and the country at large,” he further said.
Also on the Udege-Maraba crisis, Allumaga appealed to the people to coexist peacefully.
He said that the State Government had facilitated the establishment of a military outpost as recommended by the peace committee set up by the State Government.
