NEWS
Ridiculous! Buhari’s minister blames God for flooding in Nigeria
By Funmilayo Olusanya
Suleiman Adamu, the Minister of Water Resources, claimed that God was to blame for the floods that had engulfed parts of the nation and plunged communities into an unseen catastrophe for a third week.
At the budget defense conference for his ministry on Wednesday, Mr. Adamu claimed that rainfall, not the Lagdo dam in Cameroon as some have suggested, is responsible for 80% of the country’s flood crisis.
“All these stories I’ve been seeing on social media, I just laugh because they are misleading. The contribution of the Lagdo dam to flooding in this country is only one percent. Sometimes they release the water without notice and when they do that, it has an impact on communities downstream.
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“But it is not the main reason we have floods in this country — 80 percent of the floods in this country is water that we are blessed with from God from the sky,” he said.
Although Mr Adamu said that Cameroonian authorities have not been entirely honest with the Nigerian side on the opening of the dam and release of water, he maintains that Cameroon cannot be blamed for the flood and that there is no feasible end in sight to the crisis.
“This year’s flood, I can assure you, we cannot blame it on Cameroon, to be sincere. We’ll continue to have floods on the river Niger and Benue basins. We signed the MOU with the Cameroonian authorities, but since then, every year, it is the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) that calls them, ‘what is your level in Lagdo?’ “Even this one when he called them, I was communicating with the DG NIHSA, I said, ‘what’s happening in Cameroon?’ He said he has been calling them, and they said they had not released any water, but they said they would inform us. Finally, they said they would inform us tomorrow, they didn’t inform us; they informed us 24 hours after they had released the water.
“They did the same thing two years ago, I wrote to the minister of foreign affairs, and Nigeria had to write a protest letter to the Cameroonian authorities that they did not inform us. It was after our rains had gone down, suddenly we saw floods in the Adamawa area, and we were asking them. For two weeks, they were denying that they had opened the reservoir. Of course, it didn’t go to the confluence, it was limited to the areas of Adamawa state and Taraba. Because, as I said, the contribution to the flood by Lagdo dam is not so high.”
Over two million people have been affected by the flood, and over 500 people have died, according to statistics made public by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Due to restricted access, several towns have also been shut off from trade and food supplies.
Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has dismissed all transition committee chairmen in the state’s 21 local government areas.
This decision was detailed in a letter titled “Expiration of Tenure and Handover to Heads of Local Government Administrations (HLGAs),” dated May 17, 2024, and signed by Collins Nwabunwanne, the state Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Community Affairs.
According to the letter, the directive will be effective starting Monday, May 20, 2024.
The letter read, “Following the expiration of your tenure as Transition Committee Chairman, you are hereby directed to handover the affairs of your Local Government Council to the Head of Local Government Administration (HLGA), in your respective Local Government Councils.
“This directive takes effect from Monday, 20th day of May, 2024. Thank you for your service to the state. All replies to be addressed to the Honourable Commissioner.”
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe was on Wednesday inducted into the Fellowship of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
Biztellers reports that the investiture was performed by the President/Chair-in-Council of the NSE, Engr. Margaret Aina Oguntala, FNSE at a ceremony in Abuja.
Oguntala congratulated the 63 new inductees and urged them to uphold the values of their new position in their field of engineering. She highlighted that engineers have been at the forefront of driving progress and development across various sectors of the economy, notably in the oil and gas industry.
She particularly lauded the ES of NCDMB for his excellent leadership and expertise through the strategic development of local content and in-country value retention, which is a testament to his brilliance in the field of engineering.
Oguntala also applauded the strategic partnership between the NSE, the NCDMB and other stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
Similarly, the chairman Board of Fellows/College of Fellows, Engr. Kamila Maliki, FNSE, commended the new inductees for their resilience, dedication, and contribution to the field of engineering.
He added that it was not a small feat to be chosen for the investiture due to the rigorous and thorough nature of the selection process.
The ES later was joined by the Managing Director of Setraco Nigeria Limited, Engr. Ziad Mouannes and Senator Patrick Ndubueze for the unveiling of the very first edition of the 2024 NSE Quarterly Magazine.
Some senior officials of the Board who accompanied the ES to the event included the Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Abdulmalik Halilu, Director, Project Certification and Authorization, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, and the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Esueme Dan Kikile, Esq.
Before he was appointed the ES of NCDMB, Engr. Ogbe had nearly 30 years top-level career in the field of engineering in the employment of Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), before retiring voluntarily to set up his private firm.
His last position at Chevron Nigeria was Construction Services Group Superintendent, and he oversaw 200 personnel, including Nigerian nationals and expatriates.
Other notable positions he held at the company included Offshore Projects Manager, Construction Manager (Lagos, Escravos -Warri), Construction Engineer (San Ramon) in California, United States of America.
On Saturday evening, armed soldiers shut down the popular Banex Plaza in the Wuse 2 district of Abuja after a clash between traders and three soldiers over a phone sale dispute.
According to eyewitness Okechukwu Daniel, the incident began on Saturday afternoon when a young military man returned to a phone shop, claiming a phone he bought about a month ago was faulty.
Daniel, also a trader at Banex Plaza, stated that the seller refused to accept the phone back due to the lengthy period that had passed since the sale.
He said “When the phone seller refused to collect the phone back, the young guy threatened him that he will shut down his shop for refusing to collect the phone, and the seller told him to do his worse.
“That was when he got angry and went to one of the barracks close by and brought two soldiers to come and harass the phone seller for him to collect the phone back.
“When the two soldiers got to the phone shop to threaten the seller, he still refused to collect the phone. The soldiers got angry and wanted to use force on him, that was when other traders came to the rescue of the phone seller and beat up the two soldiers.”
Daniel added that after the soldiers were assaulted, they went back to the barracks to gather reinforcements.
When they returned to Banex Plaza to confront the phone seller and other traders, the traders had already fled from their shops.
He added “When over 50 soldiers who were visibly angry got to the plaza, they could not find the traders that beat up their colleagues, so they decided to shut down the plaza by asking everyone to leave. Anyone found around the plaza was asked to do frog jump and other punishment,”
See videos below:
Gov Soludo Dismisses All 21 Anambra Transition Committee Heads
Usyk Defeats Fury To Become Undisputed Champion
NCDMB’s Exec Sec, Ogbe Bags NSE’s Fellowship
Soldiers Shut Down Banex Plaza After Clash With Traders [Video]
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