Aggrieved members of the House of Representatives Committee on Ecological Fund have accused the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) of selective distribution of relief material to states affected by the flood.

The lawmakers made the allegation in Abuja on Tuesday at the resumed hearing of the investigative panel on the need to investigate the total consolidated accruals and utilization of ecological funds.

Rep. Ibrahim Isiaka, the Chairman of the committee had queried NEMA for claiming to be providing relief materials across the country without its impact being felt.

He said: “If you claim to be doing something across the nation and the national assembly is not aware then you are not doing anything.’’

Miffed by NEMA’s claim, Johnson Oghuma (APC-Edo) expressed disappointment at the way NEMA was treating some parts of the country in the distribution of relief materials, saying “it is not acceptable’’.

“The way you treat some of us from this area; is that the same way you are treating other people? I am bitter because of the way you have abandoned my people.

“My state is never recognized, you have never done anything in Edo State and you call yourself NEMA, is NEMA not Nigeria; is it a regional organization?

“I moved a motion concerning my federal constituency and that is the only way we can communicate with you. I do not have any personal relationship with you.

“For my people, they are part of Nigeria and I want to put it to you that you people were not appointed to be partial. You swore an oath before you took your office,” he said.

The lawmaker, however, walked out after a heated argument.

In his intervention, the Chairman of the committee said it was out of place for NEMA to go to flood-affected states without carrying any of the members along.

He said the investigative hearing was not for the committee to witch-hunt anyone, adding that it was an important exercise and anybody could tell that the flood experienced this year was unpleasant.

Isiaka said there was no point giving trillions of Naira to farmers when at the end of the day, the flood would sweep everything away.

“The foundation is important, if we cannot mitigate, let us control the effect of the flood because it has affected some companies and I am worried about how we are going to create jobs with this.’’

Rep. Adewumi Onanuga (APC-Ogun) said she wrote twice to the agency with regard to issues of flooding in her state and federal constituency, but lamented that not once did anyone call from NEMA for intervention.

“I do not know whether you deal only with state actors, but not with people from the Federal level and it is highly unfair.

“When we came for oversight in Lagos, I think my state is under that jurisdiction, not once did we get any information with regard to what NEMA is doing in the whole of the South West.

“I don’t have any issues with the D-G, but I have issues with NEMA as a whole and I know I speak for a lot of members, who are representative of Nigerians. These are issues that I think need to be dealt with,” she said.

Reacting, Mr. Mustapha Ahmed, the D-G of NEMA said he had personally been in the field coordinating rescue operations and on-the-spot assessment in the overall national interest to save lives and safeguard livelihoods.

“There is no doubt that but for the concerted support we gave to state SEMAs, the level of devastation of the 2022 flood disaster could have been worse than what we experienced.

“We reached out to and responded over to 1. 4 million displaced persons in all the states of the federation and the FCT.

According to him, the provision of food and non-food items for immediate relief and building materials to facilitate long-term rehabilitation of the impacted population is still ongoing.