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Flood Ravages Ekiti Towns, Destroy Multi-million Naira Property
- Obiano visits riverine communities, promises timely intervention
Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti and David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
The Wednesday midnight heavy downpour has ravaged a section of Ado-Ekiti and cut off certain part of the metropolis from the main city.
This was coming as Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has promised that his government would ensure timely intervention to relocate indigenes of the state living in riverine areas to save them from impending floods.
Mainly affected areas in Ado-Ekiti included the Ureje, along Federal Polytechnic Road and other adjoining communities like Boom Town, Eminrin and Ijelu Village, fondly called Aba Oyinbo.
The people of Ikere-Ekiti also felt a dose of the devastating effect, as houses and cars worth millions of naira were submerged by flood.
The torrential rainfall started around 8pm on Tuesday and fell intermittently throughout the night until 6am yesterday.
A resident of the area, Mr. Idowu Adaramoye, said the bridge on Ado-Ijan-Ikare Road, which also linked the capital city to the Federal Polytechnic region was overran by flood around 1am till 6am, saying commuters travelling along that route were affected but parked their vehicles in nearby filling stations and waited for six hours until the flood receded.
The source added that the flood also surged into a church and about five houses located within the vicinity of Ureje Bridge. “Nobody could cross over the bridge to the Polytechnic side or go into Ado-Ekiti city. Most of the residents of the area woke to the bewildering sight of ravaging fast-moving waters,” he said.
Also, residents of the Boom Town and Eminrin had to stay indoors till 12 p.m. yesterday before they could cross to the other side.
The Chairman of the community, Mr. Yemi Oladimeji, appealed to government to dredge the Ureje stream to lower the water level in order to prevent recurrence of this flooding.
He said: “The Ureje stream was dredged about three years ago, but the job was not well-done and the effect is what we are seeing today.
“About four houses could have been destroyed, but for communal efforts in which we concretised the same inner Ureje bridge that linked us with Oke-Ila region.
“There’s need for government to do more thorough job to dredge to reduce the water level.”
The affected areas in the second largest city of Ikere-Ekiti include: Kajola and Adun Ogbon in Oke-Osun as well as Alade Filling Station Area in Odo-Oja.
Meanwhile, Anambra State governor has promised that his government would ensure timely intervention to protect indigenes of the state living in riverine areas to save them from impending flood.
Obiano, who visited the areas, said his visit was in response to early warnings, and to alert the people of intervention signals as well as commitment to the security of life and property of indigenes living in the riverine areas of the state.
The governor embarked on an on-the-spot inspection of the area, charging relevant agencies to scale up intervention mechanisms to ensure that flood was contained accordingly.
Ferried on a boat from Onitsha Marine, Obiano, who was accompanied by top government functionaries including some members of Anambra State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) among others, visited Otuocha, Ogbaru and other riverine areas.
He said: “This visit is to get first-hand knowledge of the situation, to be able to make informed decision.
“If the flood happens, the economy of the state will be adversely affected, particularly people living in flood-prone areas, but I am very optimistic that the flood will not be as disastrous as the previous ones.”
The governor added that having inspected the 28 holding centres across the state, Anambra State Government was ready for eventualities emanating from flood.
It would be recalled that following predictions from relevant agencies in Nigeria on imminent flood disaster, SEMA had advised people living in the riverine areas of the state to be on the alert and get ready to relocate to established holding centres once they notice rise in water level within their communities.
