By Fortune Eromosele, ABUJA

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has commenced delivery of 12,000 metric ton of food commodities to persons affected by flood across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, Director-General of the Agency, Mustapha Habib Ahmed has said.

Addressing newsmen at the 2022 International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction event organized by NEMA in Abuja, Ahmed disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the release of 12,000 metric ton of assorted food commodities from the National Strategic Reserve for NEMA to distribute across the states to vulnerable Nigerians.

The DG said the Agency has already delivered the relief materials to many states and presented to the various State Government for distribution to the flood affected persons.

He assured that the relief delivery will soon be completed to all other states by this weekend as efforts have been made to address some challenges encountered in movement of the items due to condition of the roads that were covered by flood.

On the assorted food commodities approved by the President, he said the Agency has already commenced transportation of the items from the National Strategic Reserve to all the states. The items, he said will also be presented to the State Government for distribution to the vulnerable Nigerians.

Reviewing the on-going flood situation in the country, Mustapha Habib Ahmed acknowledged that NEMA and its partners were grappling with “the large scale flood disaster across the country which more than 500 lives have been lost, several property destroyed and a large number of persons displaced in some of the disaster hotspots.”