80 killed, 200,000 people displaced, businesses ruined as Lokoja flood spreads

Over 80 people have been reported dead and billions of naira property destroyed by the flood ravaging Lokoja and neigbouring communities of Kogi State, as this has swept away many houses, farmlands and overtaken major roads including the busy Lokoja-Abuja highway.

The disaster has also led to the displacement of about 200,000 persons and destroyed businesses, schools and hospitals, according to a new report by the Leadership (newspaper), which it titles ‘After hell, it’s Lokoja’.

Many motorists caught up in the disaster have been stranded for more than five days, and more worrisome are truckers of perishable cash crops who are on the verge of losing hundreds of millions of naira as their goods are rotting away.

The floods have affected over nine local government areas in Kogi State, namely: Kogi-Koto, Lokoja, Igalamela-Odolu, Bassa, Idah, Ibaji, Omala, Ajaokuta, and Ofu, ravaging over 160 communities. The homes of Kogi House of Assembly members were not spared, either.

Local rescue teams have been working under tough conditions, combing through the wreckage and flood to evacuate the remains of their loved ones.

An elderly woman, Amina Shuaibu, was reported to have said she was living in a village close to Koton-karfi, but the flood destroyed her house and all our foodstuff.

When the flood started, she said she ran to a nearby community thinking she could manage her life there, but the flood came to chase her away.

She said, “Now, our condition is very critical. At the first time we moved to a high hill to settle down, but bandits started disturbing us and we ran to the present community, where we were given a house to stay. That was where we were when the flood came to pursue us out again. Now, we are up to ten managing a room.

“I used to farm fish and rice, but the water has destroyed everything for us. I am presently helpless and homeless.”

Scores of displaced persons were said to be in shelters camping outdoors in schools under harsh weather conditions, facing an uncertain future.

Many truckers were trapped in the traffic stretching to as far as 50 kilometres to Konton Karfe – Lokoja, with drivers transporting food seen helplessly disgruntled.

Security personnel including police, naval, and FRSC officials were completely overwhelmed controlling the traffic, with hundreds of articulated lorries, trailers, tanker drivers and other motorists all trying to beat the traffic.

The Abuja-Lokoja expressway is at the moment a nightmare for travellers as the road, which is the main gateway between the North and the South of Nigeria, now transformed into a notorious gridlock hub, especially for articulated trucks and other heavy duty vehicles transporting goods to the South and North and vice versa.

An articulated vehicle driver, Ismail Mohammed, said he had spent three days on the road and that ten of the cattle he was transporting to the South West had died.

One of the leaders of the IDP camp at Koton-Karfe, Muhammed Usman, said, “Over 48 communities were affected in Koton-Karfe. Since we became displaced, nobody. either the government or individuals have visited us or given us succour.”

Also, a trader, Ramat Ishak said her shop was submerged by flood.

She said, “My shop was submerged by the flood and I lost over N50,000. My shop is the only hope for our survival. I am helpless.”

A female victim, Saidu Rheina, lamented that their community farmlands were completely destroyed by the flood.

Narrating her ordeal, another female victim, Saadatu Aduma, said she woke up at night to see that her house was flooded. She said her family had fled to safety.

The Ohimegye of Igu-Kotonkarfe chiefdom in Kogi local government area, Alhaji Abdulrazak Isah Koto lamented that over 160 communities had been submerged by the flood.

He appealed to the government to assist the victims of the flood with farming inputs so that they could go back to the farm when the flood rescinds.

He said, “Sincerely I do not know how it got to this level. This year’s flood is worse than in 2021. In 2012 the floor did not cover the federal road like this year, but this time around, the impact cannot be described. The flood got to where it has never gotten to in the past.

“Since 2012, flooding has become a recurring menace in Kogi local government, Koton Karfe. If you look at the location of this place, most of the settlements you find here are at the river bank of rivers Niger and Benue.”