RAINS continued to pound Lagos metropolis yesterday as residents were confronted with the grim realities of the previous day’s flooding: Seven persons died in a canal, two persons were electrocuted and property worth millions of naira were lost.
No fewer than seven people, including a woman and a baby strapped on her back, were yesterday found drowned at Aboru canal in Alimoso Local Council of the state.
A resident of the community, Mr. Adewale Hassan, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the victims had been swept into the canal by the rampaging flood that accompanied Sunday’s downpour.
Amid the heavy rain, a high tension wire that snapped electrocuted a 45-year-old man, while another man was killed by a falling communications mast.
Identified simply as Alhaji Lanre, the 45-year-old businessman was electrocuted at Oke-Afa, Isolo, on Monday night, when a cable of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) fell on his Adebiyi Street residence during the heavy rain.
A resident of the area, Mr. Edwin Eboh, told NAN that the incident affected four other residents of No. 4, Adebiyi Street and a commercial cyclist who was passing.
Eboh said that the other victims, only slightly burnt, were receiving treatment in some hospitals.
The heavy rainfall witnessed in Lagos from Sunday morning till yesterday afternoon also led to the collapse of a communications mast at John Street, Idumota, which killed a 26-year-old man identified as Adewale. He was merely passing through the street.
The mast, the property of a bank, fell close to the spot where a building collapsed seven days earlier and killed 18 people.
A witness said that shortly after the rains ceased temporarily around 11.05 p.m., lightning struck and that was when the mast caved in. The mast also damaged two commercial buses parked at its base.
Alhaji Kehinde Aka, owner of one of the damaged buses, said that it was only by divine intervention that he and his driver escaped being killed by the mast.
“Immediately the rains ceased at about 11.05 p.m., I called my driver and we were about entering the bus when the lightning struck.
“We ran for our dear lives and were so lucky because the bus was parked at the base of the mast; it would have been another story,” he said.
However, all efforts to speak with the bank management proved abortive, while policemen at the Adeniji-Adele Police Station said they were looking into the incident.
Residents of Anjorin and other neighbouring streets in Lawanson, Surulere, have appealed to the PHCN to always cut electricity supply during heavy rains.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) described the flood situation in Lagos as the most devastating so far this year in Nigeria.
The Director-General, NEMA, Muhammad Sani-Sidi who led a response team to assess the flood early yesterday, described the impact of the flooding on both lives and property as devastating.
Even in uptown Surulere regarded as high ground, the unusual happened. Ferryboats emerged to ferry passengers from one point to another; ferrymen made a tidy sum. Many people reportedly couldn’t get home that evening; some slept in hotels or friends’ places when news of the rain’s wreckage in their neighbourhood got to them. The notorious Oshodi-Apapa Expressway was worse. It turned a frightening, mighty body of water.
In Gowon Estate, Egbeda, Lagos, inhabitants lamented the loss of property estimated at over N100 million. Almost all the area, including first, second and fifth avenues, were flooded. Also, streets like 33, 411, 331 and 31 were flooded making vehicular movement very difficult.
Many residents of the estate scooped water till dawn from their houses yesterday while it was still raining. The level of the water had not reduced by yesterday afternoon.
Some shed tears as the enormity of the damage downed on them. “See, all my household materials, most especially electronics, have been destroyed. Where do I start from in this kind of situation? I am almost ruined,” said one man who refused to give his name.
The property, mostly electronics, computers and other consumable items, were scattered on the ground to dry them.
In some other houses, pieces of furniture were seen floating all over the place. At 33 Road, Third Avenue, the residents said that the flood rose to the waist level in the night in their houses “and we had to leave the house for fear that it might rise to the roof and drown some of us,” one house owner said.
Some of the people who did not want their names mentioned said that their losses were monumental. They explained that all the drainage systems in their areas had been blocked.
According to them, “the well laid-out drainage of the area has been closed up by some people who bought and built on them illegally. Because the system has been blocked, anytime there is any form of rain, it runs on the surface of the land and floods our homes.”
In another area, along Akowonjo Road, flood also sacked the people living in some of the houses there. Mr. Friday Ikoyo, a chief security officer in one of the private security outfits in Lagos whose house is at Bester Area of Akowonjo, said that they could not sleep all through the night.
He explained that there was no place to sleep “as my entire family and myself were bailing out water from our house all through the night. My family had no place to sleep because the whole house was covered with water and all the furniture, including the bed and beddings, were soaked. There was not even a place to sit down let alone lying down or sleeping. We have to work till this morning. But after bailing out the water, there was still no place to rest because all the household materials including chairs were still soaked,” Ikoyo said.
All the people who spoke to The Guardian urged both the Federal and state governments and the relevant environmental agencies to come to their aid and forestall a recurrence of the flooding.
Yesterday, the Lagos State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) sent a message of condolence to the victims of the flooding.
The party said it shared the grief of many Lagos residents that were subjected to the harrowing effects of the daylong torrential rainfall and pledged that the Lagos State government was committed to avoid a repeat experience in the future.
In a statement in Lagos by the spokesman of the ACN, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, the party noted that the state government’s environmental officials worked through the flood to ease the situation.
Despite the efforts of the state government, many commuters who ventured onto the streets of Lagos yesterday were stranded at bus stops as the downpour which started early on Sunday continued in the metropolis. Commercial activities were also at a standstill throughout the state.
Passengers were seen at bus stops at Ojuelegba, Mile 2, Orile Iganmu, Iyana-Ipaja, Ikotun, waiting in vain for commercial buses, which were not forthcoming.
Many commercial buses were seen submerged in flooded highways making it difficult for drivers to get to such bus stops to pick passengers.
Mr. Moses Pedro-Laniya, a resident of Alakija, said that he left his house as early as 6.00 a.m. but was still at Orile-Iganmu Bus Stop at 9.30 a.m., having covered eight kilometres in three and a half hours.
“I do not know when I will get to the office today. The rain, which started on Sunday, has caused serious flooding on the roads because of a poor drainage system,’’ Pedro-Laniya said.
He appealed to the state government to clear blocked drains to allow for free flow of the flood.
A civil servant, Mr. Ifeayi Udeze, who was on his way to Lagos Island but was stranded at Onipanu as at 10.00 a.m., said he had waited for a vehicle for three hours without success.
Udeze said that getting a commercial motorcycle was also difficult as the operators avoided the rain and flood, saying, however, that those plying the roads were asking for exorbitant fares.
“I trekked from Obanikoro to Onipanu — a distance of about three kilometres — and if in the next two hours I cannot get a vehicle, I will go back home,” Udeze said.
A trip by bus from Fadeyi to Orile, which used to be N100, attracted N150, while Onipanu to Oyingbo was jerked up to N100 from N70.
Fences of many flooded compounds, including that of the Police College, Ikeja, had to be broken open at some points to allow for free flow of the water.
Flood had completely taken over many streets such as Ibafo in Ajegunle and Mafe in Alimosho, forcing residents to flee their houses and shops.
Miss Oya Ozolua, a law student, told NAN she lost all her law books to the flood in her compound in Akowonjo by the time she returned from church on Sunday afternoon.
“I have lost more than N75,000 worth of text books to the flood. Yesterday, our entire compound was flooded and we live on the ground floor,” she lamented.
Mr. Godfrey Uakheme who lives in Ikotun told NAN that his property were soaked due mainly to a leaking roof above his two-room apartment.
“This is not the best of times for me. The two days’ heavy rain has soaked my bed, clothes and other items in my apartment because of the leaking roof,” Uakheme said.
Behind Okota Police Station, Ago Palace Way, residents bailed water from their homes all through the night of Sunday. Olorogun Peter Kese said he was lucky not to have travelled to Abuja for a meeting on Sunday, thus affording him the opportunity to help his wife and daughter to bail out water from their flooded flat.
Ojeododo, a sprawling suburb in Lagos, had been totally submerged, forcing residents to remain indoors.
“I cannot move out of my house to even flee the area as the flood has reached my window level,” said Emeka Onuoha, who lives at Agaye Street, Ijeododo.
A link bridge between Alagbole and Akute to Ojodu, along the Lagos/Ogun states border, has been swept off, cutting off movement in the densely populated area.
In Epe, officials of the local council said they were considering moving residents of some heavily flooded streets to safer grounds.
According to the supervisory councillor for the environment in Epe, Mr. Shamsudeen Yusuf, the most affected areas of the town are Araromi, Olubote, Ogungbele, Ajilogba, Alade, Oredegba and Ademu Balogun.
In Ikorodu, vehicular traffic between the sprawling town and Lagos metropolis was reduced to a crawl as most of the roads were flooded.
The most affected areas of Ikorodu included Agbede, Unity Estate, Igbogbo and Transformer.
A directive by the state government to schools not to open yesterday was heeded by some schools. All public schools were shut, while a few private schools were in session.
Some pupils, who did not hear the announcement on radio and went to school, had to return home as their schools were closed.
A meteorologist, Prof. Temi Ologunorisa, yesterday urged the Lagos State government to urgently adopt de-flooding measures, as he warned of more rains.
Ologunorisa told NAN in Lagos that drains and canals across the state would be overwhelmed by flood from the predicted rainfall for the year.
“It is not enough for the government to ask residents to stay indoors during the heavy rains; the situation is gradually becoming too much for what the drains can control.
“Lagos State should, therefore, procure more water pumping machines and adopt other de-flooding measures to ensure safety of lives and property during this peak period,’’ he said.
The Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Studies at the Osun State University, Osogbo said: “This period of excess water would require such mechanisms.”
Ologunorisa said the government ought to by now, have flood vulnerability assessment of the state, rather than wait till crisis period before acting.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayNo fewer than seven people, including a woman and a baby strapped on her back, were yesterday found drowned at Aboru canal in Alimoso Local Council of the state.
A resident of the community, Mr. Adewale Hassan, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the victims had been swept into the canal by the rampaging flood that accompanied Sunday’s downpour.
Amid the heavy rain, a high tension wire that snapped electrocuted a 45-year-old man, while another man was killed by a falling communications mast.
Identified simply as Alhaji Lanre, the 45-year-old businessman was electrocuted at Oke-Afa, Isolo, on Monday night, when a cable of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) fell on his Adebiyi Street residence during the heavy rain.
A resident of the area, Mr. Edwin Eboh, told NAN that the incident affected four other residents of No. 4, Adebiyi Street and a commercial cyclist who was passing.
Eboh said that the other victims, only slightly burnt, were receiving treatment in some hospitals.
The heavy rainfall witnessed in Lagos from Sunday morning till yesterday afternoon also led to the collapse of a communications mast at John Street, Idumota, which killed a 26-year-old man identified as Adewale. He was merely passing through the street.
The mast, the property of a bank, fell close to the spot where a building collapsed seven days earlier and killed 18 people.
A witness said that shortly after the rains ceased temporarily around 11.05 p.m., lightning struck and that was when the mast caved in. The mast also damaged two commercial buses parked at its base.
Alhaji Kehinde Aka, owner of one of the damaged buses, said that it was only by divine intervention that he and his driver escaped being killed by the mast.
“Immediately the rains ceased at about 11.05 p.m., I called my driver and we were about entering the bus when the lightning struck.
“We ran for our dear lives and were so lucky because the bus was parked at the base of the mast; it would have been another story,” he said.
However, all efforts to speak with the bank management proved abortive, while policemen at the Adeniji-Adele Police Station said they were looking into the incident.
Residents of Anjorin and other neighbouring streets in Lawanson, Surulere, have appealed to the PHCN to always cut electricity supply during heavy rains.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) described the flood situation in Lagos as the most devastating so far this year in Nigeria.
The Director-General, NEMA, Muhammad Sani-Sidi who led a response team to assess the flood early yesterday, described the impact of the flooding on both lives and property as devastating.
Even in uptown Surulere regarded as high ground, the unusual happened. Ferryboats emerged to ferry passengers from one point to another; ferrymen made a tidy sum. Many people reportedly couldn’t get home that evening; some slept in hotels or friends’ places when news of the rain’s wreckage in their neighbourhood got to them. The notorious Oshodi-Apapa Expressway was worse. It turned a frightening, mighty body of water.
In Gowon Estate, Egbeda, Lagos, inhabitants lamented the loss of property estimated at over N100 million. Almost all the area, including first, second and fifth avenues, were flooded. Also, streets like 33, 411, 331 and 31 were flooded making vehicular movement very difficult.
Many residents of the estate scooped water till dawn from their houses yesterday while it was still raining. The level of the water had not reduced by yesterday afternoon.
Some shed tears as the enormity of the damage downed on them. “See, all my household materials, most especially electronics, have been destroyed. Where do I start from in this kind of situation? I am almost ruined,” said one man who refused to give his name.
The property, mostly electronics, computers and other consumable items, were scattered on the ground to dry them.
In some other houses, pieces of furniture were seen floating all over the place. At 33 Road, Third Avenue, the residents said that the flood rose to the waist level in the night in their houses “and we had to leave the house for fear that it might rise to the roof and drown some of us,” one house owner said.
Some of the people who did not want their names mentioned said that their losses were monumental. They explained that all the drainage systems in their areas had been blocked.
According to them, “the well laid-out drainage of the area has been closed up by some people who bought and built on them illegally. Because the system has been blocked, anytime there is any form of rain, it runs on the surface of the land and floods our homes.”
In another area, along Akowonjo Road, flood also sacked the people living in some of the houses there. Mr. Friday Ikoyo, a chief security officer in one of the private security outfits in Lagos whose house is at Bester Area of Akowonjo, said that they could not sleep all through the night.
He explained that there was no place to sleep “as my entire family and myself were bailing out water from our house all through the night. My family had no place to sleep because the whole house was covered with water and all the furniture, including the bed and beddings, were soaked. There was not even a place to sit down let alone lying down or sleeping. We have to work till this morning. But after bailing out the water, there was still no place to rest because all the household materials including chairs were still soaked,” Ikoyo said.
All the people who spoke to The Guardian urged both the Federal and state governments and the relevant environmental agencies to come to their aid and forestall a recurrence of the flooding.
Yesterday, the Lagos State Chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) sent a message of condolence to the victims of the flooding.
The party said it shared the grief of many Lagos residents that were subjected to the harrowing effects of the daylong torrential rainfall and pledged that the Lagos State government was committed to avoid a repeat experience in the future.
In a statement in Lagos by the spokesman of the ACN, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, the party noted that the state government’s environmental officials worked through the flood to ease the situation.
Despite the efforts of the state government, many commuters who ventured onto the streets of Lagos yesterday were stranded at bus stops as the downpour which started early on Sunday continued in the metropolis. Commercial activities were also at a standstill throughout the state.
Passengers were seen at bus stops at Ojuelegba, Mile 2, Orile Iganmu, Iyana-Ipaja, Ikotun, waiting in vain for commercial buses, which were not forthcoming.
Many commercial buses were seen submerged in flooded highways making it difficult for drivers to get to such bus stops to pick passengers.
Mr. Moses Pedro-Laniya, a resident of Alakija, said that he left his house as early as 6.00 a.m. but was still at Orile-Iganmu Bus Stop at 9.30 a.m., having covered eight kilometres in three and a half hours.
“I do not know when I will get to the office today. The rain, which started on Sunday, has caused serious flooding on the roads because of a poor drainage system,’’ Pedro-Laniya said.
He appealed to the state government to clear blocked drains to allow for free flow of the flood.
A civil servant, Mr. Ifeayi Udeze, who was on his way to Lagos Island but was stranded at Onipanu as at 10.00 a.m., said he had waited for a vehicle for three hours without success.
Udeze said that getting a commercial motorcycle was also difficult as the operators avoided the rain and flood, saying, however, that those plying the roads were asking for exorbitant fares.
“I trekked from Obanikoro to Onipanu — a distance of about three kilometres — and if in the next two hours I cannot get a vehicle, I will go back home,” Udeze said.
A trip by bus from Fadeyi to Orile, which used to be N100, attracted N150, while Onipanu to Oyingbo was jerked up to N100 from N70.
Fences of many flooded compounds, including that of the Police College, Ikeja, had to be broken open at some points to allow for free flow of the water.
Flood had completely taken over many streets such as Ibafo in Ajegunle and Mafe in Alimosho, forcing residents to flee their houses and shops.
Miss Oya Ozolua, a law student, told NAN she lost all her law books to the flood in her compound in Akowonjo by the time she returned from church on Sunday afternoon.
“I have lost more than N75,000 worth of text books to the flood. Yesterday, our entire compound was flooded and we live on the ground floor,” she lamented.
Mr. Godfrey Uakheme who lives in Ikotun told NAN that his property were soaked due mainly to a leaking roof above his two-room apartment.
“This is not the best of times for me. The two days’ heavy rain has soaked my bed, clothes and other items in my apartment because of the leaking roof,” Uakheme said.
Behind Okota Police Station, Ago Palace Way, residents bailed water from their homes all through the night of Sunday. Olorogun Peter Kese said he was lucky not to have travelled to Abuja for a meeting on Sunday, thus affording him the opportunity to help his wife and daughter to bail out water from their flooded flat.
Ojeododo, a sprawling suburb in Lagos, had been totally submerged, forcing residents to remain indoors.
“I cannot move out of my house to even flee the area as the flood has reached my window level,” said Emeka Onuoha, who lives at Agaye Street, Ijeododo.
A link bridge between Alagbole and Akute to Ojodu, along the Lagos/Ogun states border, has been swept off, cutting off movement in the densely populated area.
In Epe, officials of the local council said they were considering moving residents of some heavily flooded streets to safer grounds.
According to the supervisory councillor for the environment in Epe, Mr. Shamsudeen Yusuf, the most affected areas of the town are Araromi, Olubote, Ogungbele, Ajilogba, Alade, Oredegba and Ademu Balogun.
In Ikorodu, vehicular traffic between the sprawling town and Lagos metropolis was reduced to a crawl as most of the roads were flooded.
The most affected areas of Ikorodu included Agbede, Unity Estate, Igbogbo and Transformer.
A directive by the state government to schools not to open yesterday was heeded by some schools. All public schools were shut, while a few private schools were in session.
Some pupils, who did not hear the announcement on radio and went to school, had to return home as their schools were closed.
A meteorologist, Prof. Temi Ologunorisa, yesterday urged the Lagos State government to urgently adopt de-flooding measures, as he warned of more rains.
Ologunorisa told NAN in Lagos that drains and canals across the state would be overwhelmed by flood from the predicted rainfall for the year.
“It is not enough for the government to ask residents to stay indoors during the heavy rains; the situation is gradually becoming too much for what the drains can control.
“Lagos State should, therefore, procure more water pumping machines and adopt other de-flooding measures to ensure safety of lives and property during this peak period,’’ he said.
The Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Studies at the Osun State University, Osogbo said: “This period of excess water would require such mechanisms.”
Ologunorisa said the government ought to by now, have flood vulnerability assessment of the state, rather than wait till crisis period before acting.
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