Minister, NEMA DG Summoned For Shunning Hearing On Erosion, Others

House of Representatives has summoned the minister of environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal and the director-general of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Zubaida Umar to appear at its next sitting or face sanctions.

The chairman, House Committee on Environment, Hon. Pondi Gbabojor, extended the invitation at a public hearing by the panel to address the devastating issues of gully erosion, perennial flooding and desertification that plague many communities in Nigeria.

The hearing was to address the adverse impacts of gully erosion in several communities across six states, of Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Lagos, and Ondo; as well as the desertification disaster in Kano and the flooding disaster in Bauchi State.

But, the minister and heads of the agencies invited were absent and did not send any representative, an action which the lawmakers frowned at.

Gbabojor directed the clerk of the committee to write to both of them, saying such an attitude would no longer be condoned.