The director general of Nasarawa state Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA), Benjamin Akwash, Tuesday said the agency has spent over N200m for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs ) in four communities of the state.
He stated this at press briefing in Lafia while he presented a stewardship report, anchored on preparedness, rapid response, and rebuilding the lives of people across the 13 local government areas of the state.
He said the communities touched were Toto, Kadarko, Doma, Giza, Mama and Jibel as the agency coordinated some of their safe return to their communities.
On flood mitigation and early warning: Akwash stated that the agency had partnered with the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Red Cross Society, in disseminating regular weather updates to the people in every nooks and crannies of the state.
On the Faster Emergency Response he said: “We reduced the average response time to flood and fire incidents to 24 to 48 hours across the 13 LGAs of the state.”
He added that the agency had distributed relief materials worth millions of naira to more than 3000 households affected by windstorms, floods, communal clashes and fire outbreaks across Nasarawa state.
Items donated included food items and non-food items. We also facilitated the rebuilding of many homes across the state”. He said.
He added that on strategic partnerships, “We are working in partnership with NEMA, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, the International Organization for Migrants (OM), Red Cross to relief materials for victims of disasters and to share resources and expertise.
The DG noted that the agency trained Local Emergency Management Committee (LEMC) volunteers across the 13 LGAs with the deputy chairmen of the LGAs as the chairmen of the committee on first aid, search and rescue, and disaster risk reduction.