Mahmud Abdullahi, a spokesman for the northern state of Niger, told AFP that the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) had opened the gates on Nigerian largest hydroelectric station on Saturday.

The Shiriro dam was at risk from rising floodwaters coming down the Kaduna River from further north in Nigeria, where thousands of families have already been driven from their homes during annual rains.

Officials said that villagers living downstream of Shiriro were warned before the water was released and there were no reports of any deaths.

But hundreds of affected villagers staged a peaceful protest Monday in front of the office of the state governor in Minna, capital of the state.

The government is discussing with NEPA officials the best way to solve the perennial problem of flooding caused by water released from the dam.

In 1999 at least seven local government districts in the state were flooded when water from the dam was released.

Thousands of houses and buildings in the state, including schools and hospitals, were either destroyed or damaged in the disaster.

Eight people were killed and 2,215 displaced in flooding in Kano State, in northern Nigeria, last week, state officials said.

And in nearby Kaduna State, flooding last week displaced over 5,000 people, but no one was killed, the Nigerian Red Cross said. State officials said that two people had been killed.

Red Cross coordinators said that 257 families -- about 1,300 people -- had been evacuated and resettled in three camps in Kaduna, 186 kilometresmiles) north of Abuja.

TERRA.WIRE