Senate calls for supplementary budget to address flood disaster

The Senate has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to send a supplementary budget to the National Assembly to address the immediate needs of the victims affected by the ravaging floods across the country.
The Senate took the resolution on Tuesday, after considering a motion on the menace of flood in the central part of the country that claimed a number of lives and displaced over a million people.
The motion for an urgent need of the supplementary budget to support the affected state government was moved by Senator Danladi Sankara.
The Senator drew the attention of the Senate to the flood which has ravaged many states in the country claiming lives and rendering thousands of Nigerians homeless.
The floods have ravaged communities along the River Niger, River Benue, Cross River as well as Gongola River and Iyere River.
The unprecedented flooding has been alleged to be caused by the release of stored water in a dam by Cameroonian authorities. Others attribute it to climate change, but the reality is that many are unprepared for it despite numerous warnings by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), earlier in the year.
Presiding over the session, Senate president David Mark expressed his displeasure with the manner in which the disaster is being handled despite NIMET’s warnings.
The lawmakers also lamented that as much the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) tried to contain the situation, the rescue agency was ill-equipped to manage disasters.
They therefore urged President Jonathan to forward a supplementary budget to the national assembly to address the immediate needs of the victims affected by the flood across the country.
They also urged the federal government to draw up a national standard operating procedure to respond to such disasters in the future.