Sadiya Farouq, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has stated that from assessment carried out so far by the ministry, Bayelsa State is not among the top ten most affected states by the recent floods.
She revealed this while addressing State House correspondents at the weekly ministerial briefing on Thursday, adding that Jigawa is ranked number one most hit state.
Her comment was made in reaction to claims made by elder statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark who implored the Federal Government to act to save flood victims in the Niger Delta and not abandon them.
The ministry said the criteria used to arrive at the conclusion are based on the following indices: the number of deaths recorded and displaced persons per state, number of injuries, partially damaged, houses totally damaged, farmlands partially and totally damaged.
According to the Federal Government’s flood data as of October 24, 2022, 257,913 persons were affected in Bayelsa while 166,076 persons were affected in Jigawa. 219,471 were displaced in Bayelsa while 68,883 were displaced in Jigawa.
Number of injured persons was put at 81 and 148 for Bayelsa and Jigawa respectively. Also, 58 deaths were recorded in Bayelsa while 91 were recorded in Jigawa.
The number of houses partially damaged by floods in Bayelsa was put at 26,509 and 1,564 for Jigawa while 703 farmlands were partially damaged in Bayelsa and 3,849 affected in Jigawa.
