A heavy downpour that lasted for hours has displaced thousands of people in Karnaya village, Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State.
Speaking to journalists, one of the community leaders in the village, Bala Adamu, said over 1,000 houses were destroyed, with much livestock lost to the ravaging flood.
According to him, the affected victims are now taking refuge at filling stations and schools in the community.
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“The flood began around 11 p.m. on Saturday,” Adamu said. “We all came out to salvage what we could. About one thousand houses have been affected. Now our people are taking refuge at a school and some filling stations that were not affected, but they can’t contain us.”
Abdullahi Karnaya, one of the victims, said the village had a sleepless night trying to salvage their children and properties. He appealed to the government and well-meaning Nigerians to come to their aid, saying that the victims have nothing to eat as many of them are sick.
“We did all our best to prevent the water from overflowing, but because the flood was coming with a speed, it broke the barrier we created. We need help in this community. Our people need food to eat and drugs as some are already sick,” said Abdullahi.
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Confirming the incident, the Jigawa state Commissioner for Special Duties, Auwal Sankara, said the state government will provide temporary shelter and relief materials for the victims.
“This is terrifying. Just a few weeks ago, we lost about 50 people to a flood. We are yet to recover from that and this happened. But we are on top of the situation by God’s grace.
“We will provide relief materials in the form of food, mosquito nets, and drugs,” Sankara said.
Recently, Jigawa and some other northern states were ravaged by flooding. This, however, led to the loss of lives and destruction of properties worth millions of naira.
