Some victims of last year’s flood in Adamawa State have claimed that they received paltry sums ranging between N200 and N240 as compensation from the government even after the Federal Government had released N500 million to them.
They have, however, said that they would not relocate to
safer areas, following predictions of heavy flooding at the peak of rainy
season this year. The Kobis Ari Committee in the state was saddled with the
responsibilities of both the assessment and disbursement of the N500million
from the Federal Government.
However, some of the victims in Demsa Local Government Area
of the state, who spoke to Vanguard on the issue, criticised the alleged poor
handling of N500 million from the Federal Government.
Some of the victims told Vanguard at Gindin-Kuka ward, which
was one of worst hit, that they were yet to get any form of assistance except
for an offer of between N200 to N240, and asked that the matter be probed.
One of the victims, Moses Ginam, said he learnt of the N500
million assistance from Federal Government from the media, but was yet to
receive any assistance except that he was told that the sum of N93,000 was
allocated to affected people in his area whereby each person would get N240.
”To be candid I only read in the newspapers that N500 million
was given to Adamawa State. We were told that we were given N93,000 and when
you divide this money each household will get N240.
”The Federal Government should investigate this matter
because those affected were not the people who benefited from the money.”
Another victim, Mr. Francis Emmanuel, also asked the
government to investigate the incident , saying that, his community in Mbula
chiefdom rejected the N1.5 million given to them as it was too meagre to go
round.
”They sent N1.5 million to the entire Mbula chiefdom and the
people refused it because if you are going to share this money to the people,
each will get just a little above N200.
”Imagine somebody that lost his house and farm and he is
given just N200?” he asked.
Mallam Abdullahi Gindin-Kuka, who also called for probe into
the handling of the Federal Government’s largesse, said he was asked to collect
N240 from the ward head as assistance from the government, but that he rejected
the offer.
The Secretary to Adamawa State Government, SSG, Mr. Kobis
Thimnu who was the state chairman of Quick Response Committee that handled the
issues involving the flood victims, said the money was used for the purchase of
60 trucks of fertiliser and varieties of seedlings, among other things, for the
farmers.
Thimnu said the measure was taken in view of the fact that
most of those affected we’re farmers.
”You are aware that the state is an agrarian area and that
is why we decided to give priority to food security by providing fertiliser and
seedlings to framers,” Thimnu said.
He also explained that cash was given to affected local
governments based on the level of destruction, adding that Lamurde was given
N29 million as the worst affected.
According to Thimnu, committees were set up in each of the
local governments with commissioners from the affected local government areas
serving as chairmen of the disbursement committees.
No comments:
Post a Comment