FEC Okays Disasters Relief Fund

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the setting up of a Disasters Relief Funds that is aimed at engendering quick response to victims of disasters across the country.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, stated this on Monday while briefing State House Correspondents shortly after the FEC meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa Abuja.

The Fund is to source finances from the three tiers of government and private sector players for flood victims.

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This is coming as FEC constituted a Technical Committee to reassess the dams across the country, and particularly the Alau Dam in Borno State where scores of lives were lost recently as a result of the flood disaster that ravaged many parts of the state’s capital, Maiduguri.

The committee is to be Chaired by the Minister of Water Resources and has other members.

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Meanwhile, the Federal Government, through the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), has proposed to build five buffer dams to contain incessant floodings which often arise from the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.

The Agency also warned Nigerians resident in floodplains to relocate immediately to safe spaces in anticipation of attendant floods that annually come with the release of water from the Lagdo Dam.

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NIHSA listed flood-prone states to include Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Edo, Delta, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, and Rivers.

The release of water from the Lagdo Dam comes days after water from overflowing Alau Dam killed over 30 persons and swept away thousands of homes in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State. (Channels)