{"id":71222,"date":"2025-07-22T13:05:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=71222"},"modified":"2025-07-23T07:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T07:11:21","slug":"nef-alerts-fg-deadly-northern-flood-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/22\/nef-alerts-fg-deadly-northern-flood-looms\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly Northern Flood Looms, NEF Alerts FG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Omoniyi David<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has raised alarm over an imminent flood crisis threatening large parts of Northern Nigeria and called on the Federal Government to act fast.<\/p>\n<p>NEF spokesperson, Prof. Abubakar Jiddere, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, warned that with August approaching \u2014 traditionally marked by peak rainfall \u2014 there is an immediate need for coordinated federal and state-level intervention to avert the catastrophic consequences of inaction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFailure to act promptly will result in avoidable loss of life, destruction of property, displacement, and economic dislocation at a scale Northern Nigeria cannot afford. This is not merely a warning. It is a declaration of a national threat. The time to act is now,\u201d the forum warned.<\/p>\n<p>NEF urged the government to urgently activate flood emergency plans, clear drainage systems, reinforce dams, build barriers and reservoirs, and engage Cameroon on water releases from the Lagdo Dam. It also called for pre-positioning of emergency kits in high-risk communities and sensitisation of residents on evacuation procedures.<\/p>\n<p>Jiddere cited the July 16, 2025, flood alert by the National Flood Early Warning Systems Centre, which listed 11 states at extreme risk, including Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Plateau, Yobe, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa and Zamfara. He stressed that current rainfall patterns and weak infrastructure confirm the danger of flooding through September.<\/p>\n<p>He recalled that past floods had left a trail of destruction. In 2012, 363 people died, over 2.1 million were displaced and 30 states were affected, with Kogi and Benue worst hit. In 2022, more than 600 lives were lost, 1.3 million people displaced, and homes and infrastructure destroyed. On September 9, 2024, the collapse of Alau Dam in Borno led to flash floods that devastated Maiduguri and Jere LGAs, killing many and destroying properties. Most recently, on May 28, 2025, heavy flooding in Mokwa, Niger State, claimed over 500 lives, left 600 missing, 3,600 injured, destroyed 4,000 homes and triggered a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Omoniyi David &nbsp; The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has raised alarm over an imminent flood crisis threatening large parts of Northern Nigeria and called on the Federal Government to act fast. NEF spokesperson, Prof. Abubakar Jiddere, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, warned that with August approaching \u2014 traditionally marked by peak rainfall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":71223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71269,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71222\/revisions\/71269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}