Flood: Tinubu directs Shettima to visit Maiduguri

President Bola Tinubu has directed Vice-President Kashim Shettima to, immediately, visit Maiduguri, Borno, over the devastating flood in the state capital.

Shettima disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, at the 17th Annual Banking and Finance Conference (CIBN) with the theme,” Accelerated Economic Growth and Development: the state of play and the way forward”/

“After this meeting with the consent of the President, I will rush to Maiduguri. The whole city has been overtaken by flood. It is not peculiar to one part of the country. We are facing this challenges right from Bayelsa to Sokoto.”

“Be rest assured that the President has the nation at heart and will do whatever it takes to salvage the state of affairs,” he said

Shettima expressed the sympathy of President Tinubu’s administration to all the victims of flood disasters nationwide.

“I want to use this forum to commiserate with the people of our great nation over the flood disasters we are recording all across the length and breath of this nation,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many residents of Maiduguri have been displaced by flood, following the collapse of water channels at the Alau Dam.

The flood submerged residential quarters, roads and bridges, making many areas in the metropolis inaccessible.

A NAN correspondent, who went round the metropolis, reported that the flood submerged strategic areas including parts of the Shehu of Borno Palace, Maiduguri Central Market and University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

Other areas badly hit included the GRA, Maiduguri Zoo, College of Nursing, College of Agriculture and School of Health Technology, among others.

Many residents were seen evacuating basic items to areas considered relatively safer, with some youths erecting sandbags to prevent water from entering their quarters.

The state government is yet to issue official figures of casualties, but it has ordered the closure of public and private schools for two weeks.(NAN)