Flood takes over houses in Lokoja

• Residents of Kogi State capital now live in fear over rise in water level of River Niger
ANOTHER round of flood disaster is gradually creeping into Lokoja, as the water levels have risen to 40 metres and already flowing into some homes.
 The palpable fear is in line with the fact that the rise in water level, this time around, has coincided with the same period in 2012, when water level rose to an extent that the flood disaster that caused untold hardship and loss of property worth billions of naira for residents in the state.
  People around the river-bank in Gadumo and   Ganaja village areas in Lokoja have been relocating to upland areas to avoid the incident of 2012 which caught them unawares.
   The Executive Secretary of the Kogi State Emergency Management Agency, Mrs. Agnes Ogedengbe, said the new round of flood is as a result of the adamant posture of people who prefer to build their houses across the channel of River Niger.

  She said the waters of River Niger have reached as high as 40 metres due to the serious effect of flooding in Benue State and some other places along River Benue and Niger before coming to meet the confluence in Lokoja.
  “There wouldn’t have been cause for any alarm except for the fact that the rains are still on and in the northern parts of the country all their rainfalls of June, July, August and September are collecting here in Lokoja before moving to the Atlantic Ocean.”
  “The easy flow and passage of the water would have been continuous without any negative consequence if not for the fact that buildings are occupying the right of way of River Niger.
  Ogedengbe observed that water has its right of way and that water must find its level whether people like it or not.
  She said that is the reason the water is spreading to cover a wider area because the channel for River Niger to flow is blocked by houses built on water channels and water cannot easily flow out of Lokoja.
 “It is a gradual process and it is moving to occupy many houses. This is why some people that suffered from the 2012 flood disaster have started experiencing another trauma caused by floods, so it is double jeopardy.”
 “This is a river and not a stream, so it has its route from the FutaJallon Island and all the way from there it moves to Lokoja.  As long as there is River Niger and as long as people build along the water-ways the two cannot go together. So it is either the water will give way or the houses,” she said.
  In a related development Ogedengbe said the international disaster reduction is talking about the old people and disaster resilience.
  She called on Governments and corporate individuals on the need to make the old people feel comfortable so they would not be scared for the remaining part of their lives.
 “Governments and organizations should strive hard because these people have laboured all their entire lives.  Now that they are old, we should take care of them.”
  Kogi State Government has been sensitizing the people on the need to be cautious about flood.
It advised those living in flood prone areas to move to safer and higher grounds.
  A resident, Ismaila Hussein, told The Guardian while moving out of Gadumo yesterday that he would not wait till water fully takes over the place like what happened in 2012.
  Recently in Lokoja, the Deputy Governor of the state, Arc Yomi Awoniyi, who stated that the government was in constant touch with the dam controllers, however, warned those living near the river-bank to move upland to avoid casualties.
  However, a metallurgist serving in Lokoja, Mr David Agbe, stated that there was no need for fear, noting that the water level will not increase beyond the present level