Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, on Wednesday, October 19, 2022, urged his counterparts in other political parties to suspend their campaigns and join him to help victims of floods across states of the federation.
Floods have hit parts of Nigeria in the last two months Houses and farmlands have been submerged in Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia States, and the Federal Capital Territory.
More than 600 people have died in the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in more than a decade, according to the nation’s humanitarian affairs department.
Sadiya Umar Farouq, the minister of humanitarian affairs and Disaster Management, said that as of Sunday, over 603 people died, 2,407 were injured and 1.3 million others have been displaced.
Additionally, “about 82,000 homes have been completely destroyed, 108,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged (raising concerns about Nigeria’s food supply) along with 332,000 hectares of roads and infrastructure”, Farouq said.
However, 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, the Labour Party presidential candidate, charged other presidential candidates to show concern to the plight of victims of flooding, considering how millions were spent on nomination forms alone.
Obi is in the 2023 race for Aso Rock’s top job alongside Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, amongst others.
The former Anambra governor vowed to fix Nigeria’s challenges if he wins next year’s poll and becomes the country’s President.
Obi also reacted to the allegations by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State that he detained him in Anambra while he served as governor.
Insisting he had no authority to detain El-Rufai, Obi said he was confined to his local government during the said election and urged the Kaduna State governor to put the incident behind him.
In his response, Ortom encouraged Nigerians to go into the 2023 general elections with the mindset of electing the best presidential candidate among the top hopefuls.
According to Ortom, Nigeria currently runs on oxygen and would need a hands-on and detribalised leader to restore hope, development, and progress.
