One Reported Killed As Flood Hits 37 Communities In Benue

 

One person has been reported drowned as flood submerges schools, power installations, and rice farms in 37 communities of Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State.

The incident has forced hundreds of residents from their homes as they now take refuge along the Guto-Oweto highway in the state.

The flood is a result of an overflow of the shallow River Benue which could not contain the release of excess water from the Lado Dam in Cameroon.

Residents of Utugolugu, one of the affected communities lamented in an interview with Channels Television that they have been victims of floods since 2012.

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The floods hit the communities while the people of Agatu, one of the worst-hit areas in Benue from the many years of herdsmen attacks, were still in the recovery process.

During a visit to some of the affected areas, Channels Television uncovered a submerged transformer which holds great danger for anyone who attempts any form of evacuating their belongings.

 

The most dangerous part of the flood was a twenty-minute boat ride to Utugolugu where the entire community was submerged.

Residents in this community practically live in the water, cook on elevated wooden platforms, and sleeps on the roofs of their homes.

Some of the residents, Oigene Haruna and Queen Matthew, urged the government to come to their rescue, saying the suffering was much for them.

 

According to the, their children have no access to their school and no functional hospital while they have continued to live right inside the water for more than three months.

The lawmaker representing Agatu State Constituency in the Benue State House of Assembly, Godwin Edoh, and the Ada’Agatu, Godwin Onah, said the situation requires an urgent intervention of the government.