The popular Nigerian city of Ibadan has been overtaken by flood as heavy rains bring many communities to a standstill.
File photo used only for illustrative purpose
Different parts of Ibadan city were on Wednesday struck by tragedy at night as a heavy down sacks hundreds of residents of the city.
Community leaders were seen early Thursday morning at Lade area of Omi Adio, making distress calls to contact officials of the Nigerian Railway Corporation to halt all movement of trains to the area to avert another tragedy that may arise from railway accident.
According to The Nation, among the areas that were affected are Odo-Ona , Gbekuba, NIHORT ,Oke-Ayo, and some parts of Apata ,but the worst hit was Omi-Adio where many residents were sacked by the flood.
A private school with boarding facilities situated at Gbekuba area of the city was flooded, while many students of the school were trapped in the flood.
Sources said that some of the students rescued in the flood last Wednesday night were presently receiving medical attention in an undisclosed hospital.
The Public Relations Officer, University College Hospital (UCH), Mr Deji Bobade said the hospital has been placed on alert ,saying that as at yesterday they have received any flood related case in the hospital.
The popular Omi Adio market, was leveled with water, as well as offices and shops .
About 200 shops were estimated to have been destroyed by the flood which defied all the water channels and drainages by local authorities to control flood.
Crop Farmlands and fish ponds were not spared in the disaster, as farmers lost huge investment running into hundreds of thousands to the flood which swept across vast acres of land at Omi Adio.
The down pour which started at about 7.15pm lasted till 11.10pm before it subsided.
The number of homes flooded could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report, but a source said that no fewer than 100 houses were affected at Lade and Gbekuba areas of the city.
Several market women looked in amazement yesterday morning as water level rose, covering their entire shops where goods worth several thousands of naira were destroyed.
Helpless residents wailed uncontrollably, seeking for government assistance in finding lasting solution to the flood problem in the city.
Recounting her ordeals, a resident affected by the flood at Gbekuba area of Ibadan, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Adeogun said her family had to run out of the house at about 2am when the rooms were overtaken by flood.
She said "when myself, three children and my husband came out of the house that midnight, we fell into the water . We thought that was the end but we thanked God that we met some of our neighbours who rendered a helping hand. We were rescued into a nearby home where we were accommodated till daybreak. We had nothing in the house that was not drenched in water. But we thank God we have our lives”.
Another victim, a trader, Pa Sulaiman Akande who lost bags of cocoa seed to the flood described the flood as a great setback to the community.
He said despite communal effort to prevent the incident, the flood still came and wreck havoc on the lives of the traders in the market.
“We are appealing to the government to act fast now to save the residents from disaster. We don’t know what to expect in the month of August. We believe that state government can prevent this tragedy by constructing modern drainages and dredging the omi River. We have other rivers ahead, all within the city. People throw refuse inside these rivers and blocked the waterways. And this is quite unfortunate. Let the government improve on the refuse management to avert this problem,” he said.