Flooding: Obi tells Tinubu, others to suspend campaigns as Rivers flood victims allege neglect by State Government; NLNG declared force majeure
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has called on his counterparts in other parties to suspend their campaigns and join him to help victims of floods across states of the federation.
Obi made the call while addressing journalists after his visit to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State at his Abuja private residence where he had gone to discuss modalities on his planned visit to flood sites in Benue and other states.
Obi said he expected other presidential candidates to show concern towards the plight of victims of flooding, considering how millions were spent on nomination forms alone.
Also, hundreds of flood victims in the EDEOHA community in the Ahoda East local government area of Rivers state are lamenting the deplorable conditions caused by flood in their community and expressed their worry over alleged neglect by the state Government.
The people appealed to the state government and other stakeholders to sympathize with those displaced by the catastrophe and insisted that they are yet to benefit from the 1-billion-naira intervention fund released by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
They also highlight some of the urgent interventions needed at the Internally Displaced Persons Camp the community provides to ameliorate their suffering.
Earlier Monday, the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) export facility declared force majeure on its supplies citing disruption by the recent flooding in Delta State to its feed gas suppliers’ production.
Force majeure absolves companies from liabilities of contractual obligations due to factors outside their control.
According to the spokesperson of the company, Andy Odeh, the company was forced to make the declaration after its upstream gas suppliers had declared force majeure.
“The notice by the gas suppliers was as a result of high flood water levels in their operational areas, leading to a shut-in of gas production which has caused significant disruption of gas supply to NLNG,” Reuters quoted him as saying.
Although he said NLNG was determining the extent of the disruption and would try to mitigate the impact of the force majeure, it was unclear how long the force majeure will last.
Last two weeks, fuel queues resurfaced in Abuja with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) blaming the scarce distribution of petroleum products on vehicular movement restrictions due to floods.
Already, the disaster has submerged farmland across states, threatening massive food security in Nigeria.
