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The Government of Kogi State, North-Central Nigeria, ignored advance warning about the imminent flooding of River Niger, thus resulting in the present flooding that has cut off the Abuja – Lokoja highway, it has been revealed.

News Express reports that the road was yesterday temporarily closed by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) due to excessive flooding which made vehicular movement impossible. Motorists have been told to take alternative roads.

The busy highway which links the Federal Capital Territory with many parts of southern Nigeria had since last week been flooded because of the rise in water level from River Niger.

“Relevant weather authorities had warned of this occurrence weeks before now, but it seems, under the leadership of a retired pilot who practised for years and depended on weather forecast to fly, didn’t see any seriousness in the forecast,” said frontline labour activist, Comrade Denja Yaqub.

Writing this morning on his Facebook wall, Yaqub, an Assistant Secretary at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) headquarters in Abuja, described the flood as “preventable.”

He lamented the insensitivity of the Kogi State Government under the watch of Captain Idris Wada, saying that this kind of incident “has never happened in Lokoja before now.”

Yaqub regretted that the flood has not only “made travels between the north and the south impossible with the link motorway in Lokoja heavily flooded” but also “countless people have lost their homes in Ganaja area of the first capital of colonial Nigeria.”

The NLC chief advised “all tiers of government in Kogi State to rise up to responsibility by clearing the flood and make provision for the prevention of any repeat.”

*A scene from the flooded highway, as captured in this photo from the Facebook wall of FRSC Rivers State Sector Commander, Dr. Kayode Olagunju.

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