Pastor, Wife Die in Imo Floods; NEMA: ‘They Ignored Our Warning’

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Tuesday, September 25th, 2018

From Ignatius Okpara, Owerri

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Owerri/Abia state, South-East Nigeria, operations office of the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA, has confirmed the death of a pastor and his wife in a devastating flood that occurred on Mondayat Oguta, Community of the state.

Mr. Evans Ugoh, Head of the Office, who confirmed this to newsmen Tuesday in Owerri, described the incident as tragic.

He, however, refused to disclose the identities of the late couple, blaming the disaster on the alleged neglect of the agency’s earlier warning by residents of the area.

The flood which wrecked serious havoc in the community, swept away some residential buildings, shops and farmlands.

African Examiner reports that the affected community is the headquarters of Oguta council Area of Imo state.

According to the NEMA official, the federal government agency gave evacuation notice early enough but regretted that it was ignored by the people of the community.

Ugoh, added that he led a team of NEMA officials to Oguta and Ohaji/Egbema local government area to monitor the sea level in the wake of increasing cases of flood in the area.

“When we discovered that there was an unusual rise in the sea level, we immediately issued evacuation notice to seven communities in the area.

The agency he said, equally advised the communities likely to be affected to monitor the sea regularly and report to the agency for prompt action, regretting that the deceased couple died barely one week after the evacuation notice was handed down by NEMA.