Benue State needs N500 million to fight ecological problems

Benue State government needs some N500 million as a first step towards checking ecological problems there and more than N3 billion to stop them altogether, State Governor George Akume announced on Monday, according to ‘The Post Express’. Akume, speaking to visiting members of the Senate Committee on Environment, said the money was needed to build dykes around some major rivers, construct drainages in major towns and control environmental pollution around the state, the newspaper reported. He cited the river Katsina Ala which flooded weeks ago, damaging crops and livestock and rendering people homeless, as well as dust pollution emitted by a cement factory which he described as a serious environmental threat to local people and farmland. The governor appealed to the lawmakers to make urgent legislation on the ecological problems facing Nigeria. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment had earlier expressed shock at the environmental problems facing the state, ‘The Post Express’ reported.