Yemisi Izuora with Agency Report
Over 100 people have reportedly died in floods after two major rivers burst their banks.
The National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) says heavy rains caused the Niger River and Benue River to overflow.
It has resulted in a series of floods across the country over two weeks, with rural areas most vulnerable.
The government is urging residents along waterways to relocate to safe places.
Thousands of people have been displaced and vast swathes of farmlands have been destroyed by the floods in central and southern Nigeria, says the BBC’s Is’haq Khalid in the capital, Abuja.
Worst hit is Niger State, where more than 40 people have died, Nema director Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja told the BBC.
Eleven other states have been affected – they are Kwara, Benue, Kogi, Adamawa, Taraba, Kebbi, Bayelsa, Edo, Anambra, Rivers and Delta.
Nigeria has faced flooding in recent years, with hundreds killed and thousands displaced.
Details of the huge number of deaths were not immediately clear, but the BBC quoted NEMA as saying 40 people had died in Niger state alone.
Earlier, the Kano State Government had confirmed the death of 31 people and destruction of more than 10,000 houses during the recent flood disaster in 15 Local Government Areas of the state.
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has declared Kogi, Niger, Anambra and Delta states as National Disaster following flooding that has been ravaging the four states since last month.
The Director General of the agency, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja, who made the declaration in Lokoja on Monday night shortly after he assessed the level of devastation in some parts of Kogi State, stated that other eight flood prone states were placed on the agency’s watch list depending the outcome of the flood situation.
Maihaja stated that based on the recent information received from the Nigeria Hydrological Service Agency, the water level has reached 11.06 metres as at Monday September 17th , saying the water level has caused a lot of devastations in Kogi, Niger, Delta and Anambra states.
“The recent forecast by NIMET indicated that the rainfalls will continue. With this investigation, all indices for flooding has already manifested with Kainji and Jebba dams spilling excess water continually.
“It is also worthy to note that the Africa Regional Climate Centre in Niamey, the capital of Niger Republic has also forecasted the above average precipitation; it is likely that most northern states in Nigeria will experience precipitation from August to November, 2018,” he said.
Maihaja disclosed that the current situations in the four states with the growing consequences and devastation require the cooperation of international organizations to ameliorate the suffering of the flood victims.
He pointed out that with the current flood devastation in the country, NEMA will forward a memo to the president for a lasting solution inline with the relevant provision of the National Disaster response plan to tackle the menace permanently.
The DG noted that the agency’s situation room domiciled at the headquarters and the five territorial emergency centres had been activated for effective search and rescue operations.