The Deputy Governor of Niger State, Comrade Yakubu Garba, has said the death toll from the recent flood disaster in Mokwa Local Government Area has climbed to nearly 200, with more than 1,000 people still unaccounted for.
Garba gave the update on Monday, June 2, while receiving former presidential candidate Peter Obi, who paid a condolence visit to the Niger State Government House in Minna.
He described the situation as deeply alarming, noting that “more than 3,000 people have been displaced and over 2,000 houses affected.”
Speaking on the scale of the tragedy, Garba said, “We cannot give you exact interim statistics because even yesterday, whatever we have seen before yesterday, the number has gone up. If we say this is the number today, the next day, you see the number go up again.”
According to him, many residents remain missing after the flood swept through several communities.
“For now, we don’t know where they are and our solution. Those people have actually been swept off by water, and the number is not less than 1,000.
”We have reviewed house to house, and based on the household, the number of people that are yet to be seen is more than 1,000,” he explained.
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“But the dead that have been seen, physically dead, they are almost close to 200 now. And the displaced persons are more than 3,000 plus and the affected properties are more than 2,000.
“There are some roads that have been washed away, and about three bridges have collapsed due to the wave of this river,” he added.
Garba stressed that the numbers continue to rise by the hour as more families report missing persons. “So nobody can ascertain exactly the figure of what has happened.
“You can only see what you see at that moment. But actually in our time, you will see that number continue scaling up,” he said.
In his remarks, Peter Obi lamented the tragic loss of lives and destruction caused by the flood. He said he came to commiserate with the people and show solidarity.
“And our people lost their lives. It is critical. So we are just here to condole and show our solidarity and continue to assure you that for me, for Nigeria, these are states we need to invest in,” Obi said.
Obi also donated ₦20 million to support victims and praised the Niger State Government for its response, urging greater efforts to prevent future disasters.