The Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has issued danger alert to residents against impending flood in the territory.
The Director-General of FEMA, Alhaji Idriss Abbas,in a statement on Sunday, said most of the deaths so far recorded, were a result of non-compliance to instructions and early warnings.
Abbas, therefore, emphasised the need for residents to adhere to instructions and early warnings from relevant authorities.
“Narrating the incident, an eye witness account (one of FEMA’s volunteer/vanguard Kenneth Chima) who captured the incident on video explained that they were four men that tried walking through the water.
“And I kept warning them to go back, three of them went back but only this man insisted on crossing, unfortunately the water overpowered him and washed him away,” he said.
He decried the increasing rate of flood in the FCT due to residents’ apathy towards government’s directives and early warnings.
“This is also despite FEMA’s consistent sensitisations based on The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) and Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) predictions of torrential rainfall and dangers of flooding.“
He said FEMA was conducting sensitisation programmes in five different indigenous languages in the FCT using different media channels.
“We recently organized a meeting with our Volunteers, Vangards and Divers from all the area Councils within the FCT to educate them on how they can sensitise their people on how to prevent disasters to minimize loss of lives and properties.
“We also embarked on community to community flood sensitisation campaigns in the FCT and mounted billboards at all the flood prone points warning off and cautioning residents from these danger areas.”
He also advised residents not to underestimate the strength of water when it was flooded.
“What we are experiencing now is flash flood, the water builds up speedily and comes unnoticed hence very dangerous,” he said.
