TheCable

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says it will provide relief materials to survivors of the recent attacks in Plateau state. 

Speaking on Wednesday when Caleb Mutfwang, governor of Plateau, paid him a visit in Abuja, Mustapha Ahmed, director-general of NEMA, said the agency is awaiting a report to ascertain the number of those affected so as to send adequate relief items to them.

He added that farmers who lost farm produce and farmlands to the 2022 flood across the country would also get relief items from the federal government to cushion the effects of their loss.

“The items to be distributed are currently in the 36 states including the federal capital territory (FCT) and the farmers will get the items once the agency gets presidential directive,” NAN quoted Ahmed as saying.

“For the crisis in Plateau, whenever disaster hits, I quickly request for on-the-spot-assessment to get a report and immediately a disaster hits, we respond swiftly. We will not turn our backs on Plateau state or any other state.

“For those displaced, I am waiting for the report, NEMA is there for the distressed, we will definitely reach out. We will make sure everybody is taken care of.”

On his part, Mutfwang said the visit was to seek the NEMA’s support for victims of the recent killings in Plateau state.

“I know that Plateau state has been in the news of late, we are not happy about it but that is the reality. We have had a lot of incidences of insurgency in the last two to three months that has assumed the dimension of a national disaster,” Mutfwang said.

“Whenever a life is lost, it is a subject of concern but where you have over 200 people who have lost their lives, it requires a new dimension. As a result of the insurgency, we have a lot of internally displaced people who are today in IDP camps, we have a lot of unsettled communities.

“Once you have human beings suffering from hunger, displacement, every responsible government must do something to address them. And there is no other agency that is saddled with the constitutional responsibility as a nation to address those issues other than NEMA.”