The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has commenced distribution of relief items to 2025 flood victims in Abia.

NEMA, in collaboration with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), handed over the relief items to the representatives of the affected communities on Thursday in Umuahia, the state capital.

The items distributed include cartons of spaghetti and macaroni.

In a speech, Nnamdi Igwe, head of the NEMA Owerri Operations Office, said the effort was part of the agency’s response to the flood disasters affecting various communities in the state.

Mr Igwe, represented by Sunday Iweala, the search and rescue officer at NEMA, said the intervention approved by the Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation was to cushion the effects of the disaster.

“It is a little assistance from the federal government, and we believe that it will reach the affected people through SEMA,” he said.

In a remark, the executive secretary of SEMA, Sunday Jackson, disclosed that about 45 communities across the 17 local government areas of the state were affected by the flood disaster.

Mr Jackson expressed gratitude to the committee chairman, Aliko Dangote, for ensuring that Abia was among the benefiting states.

He equally appreciated NEMA for facilitating the process, as well as Governor Alex Otti for providing an enabling environment and ensuring that the people felt the positive impact of governance.

In a response, Godwin Nwakanma, the village head of the Isiala Ovum autonomous community in Obingwa LGA, thanked the government for its kind gesture.

He, however, urged government intervention, adding that the flood displaced members of the community and destroyed their buildings, farmlands, and other property.

(NAN)