By Rabiu Sani
Maiduguri – Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno has disbursed N100 million to 10,000 households displaced by flood in Rann, Kala Balge Local Government Area of the state.
Mr Isa Gusau, the Special Adviser on Public Relations and Strategy to the governor, disclosed in a statement on Wednesday in Maiduguri.
Gusau said the governor had on Tuesday inaugurated the disbursement exercise in Rann, a border community between Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad Republics.
He said that each of male headed households received N15,000 while their female counterparts got N10,000 each, respectively.
Gusau explained that the gesture was to mitigate the sufferings of the people who were earlier displaced by the insurgency before flood dislodged them in July 2019.
“Gov. Zulum flew from Maiduguri to Kala Balge on board a helicopter because it is currently impossible to access the area by road due to massive water-log caused by discharge of excess water from a dam in Cameroon in July 2019.
“The governor supervised the distribution of N100 million in cash to the residents in Rann, whose only option is to trek about 10 kilometres to border communities in order to buy food and other basic needs.
“Each of the 10,000 households in the community was given between N10,000 and N15,000 cash due to lack of available banking services in the area.
“More than 10,000 households in the agrarian community have been trapped while crops planted last year were destroyed by a herd of 250 elephants sighted by officials of the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) from their helicopter in December 2019.
“Farmlands still flooded cannot be cultivated by the residents forcing them to completely depend on aid transported to them through humanitarian air services.
“Rann is considered Nigeria’s most severely disadvantaged local government headquarters despite 25 years of existence.
“It is usually inaccessible during rainy season as there is neither road nor bridge linking the council headquarters with the rest of Borno State. The council is also not connected to the national grid,” the statementread in part.
According to him, the governor is in Kala Balge for humanitarian visit for the third time since June 2019.
Gusau recalled that Zulum had paid similar visit to Rann on June 9 and Dec. 8, 2019, respectively, where he supervised distribution of food and non-food items to displaced people in need of critical lifesaving assistance.
He added that the governor was accompanied on the visit by Dr Zainab Gimba, member representing Kala Balge, Bama and Ngala Federal Constituency, as well as other officials.
(NAN)
