Flooding: Bayelsa not among the 10 most hit states, Jigawa the most affected – Minister

Our reporter| Sadiya Farouq, Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development, Sadiya Farouq on Thursday said Jigawa, not Bayelsa is the most affected state by the flood disaster that ravaged parts of Nigeria.

According to her, Bayelsa State is not among the top ten most affected states by the recent floods.

Farouq made the disclosure at the ministerial media briefing organised by the presidential communications team held in Abuja.

Edwin Clark, leader of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), had earlier said that the humanitarian affairs minister was inhumane towards victims of the flood in Bayelsa and other areas in the southern region.

“We have a humanitarian minister that is not humane, who was only active to carry out schoolfeeding of schoolchildren who were confined to their homes during the COVID-19 lockdown,” Clark said.

But responding to Clark’s allegation on Thursday, Farouq said her ministry had distributed relief materials to affected persons in Bayelsa through the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).

The minister further explained that the criteria used to arrive at the conclusion on the affected states are based on the following indices: the number of deaths recorded and displaced persons per state, number of injuries, partially damaged, houses totally damaged, farmlands partially and totally damaged.

According to the Federal Government’s flood data as of October 24, 2022, 257,913 persons were affected in Bayelsa while 166,076 persons were affected in Jigawa. 219,471 were displaced in Bayelsa while 68,883 were displaced in Jigawa.

Number of injured persons was put at 81 and 148 for Bayelsa and Jigawa respectively. Also, 58 deaths were recorded in Bayelsa while 91 were recorded in Jigawa.

The number of houses partially damaged by floods in Bayelsa was put at 26,509 and 1,564 for Jigawa while 703 farmlands were partially damaged in Bayelsa and 3,849 affected in Jigawa.

According to her, the flood disaster is a national issue as she was doing her best in discharging her duties.

“Merely looking at me, you know that I am humane,” she added.

So far, over 600 persons have been killed by flooding across Nigerian communities in 2022.