FIVE days to the anniversary of theday rain wreaked havoc on Ibadan31 years ago, residents of the OyoState capital were, again, leftmourning, following disasterbrought upon them by a downpourthat lasted about six hours onFriday.Ibadan had been ravaged onSunday, August 31, 1980, with manylives and property lost to the rainwhich then a juju musician,Ebenezer Obey, in a dirge, called ‘ojoabami’ (strange downpour).The Friday re-enactment of therain of rage and flood of tearscame barely four weeks after thetown was flooded in a similarmanner, prompting governmentofficials to start clearing mostdrainages that had been choked upwith rubbish.Although the downpour affectedvirtually every area of Ibadan,areas that were mostly affectedwere communities in Oluyole, Iddo,Akinyele, Lagelu, Ibadan South West,Egbeda, North West, and North Eastlocal government areas.The downpour resulted in serioustraffic gridlock and commuterswere stranded on their way home.Many eventually slept in theirwork places hotels and accessibleplaces of abode of friends.Also, many motorists abandonedtheir vehicles on the road, either asa result of mechanical faults orout of fear of being washed away bythe flood.In Oluyole Estate, behind VineHospital, a man who was trying toescape through the ceilling when hishouse was flooded, got stuck andeventually died.In Agbowo/U.I area of the town, nofewer than 15 people, mostlychildren, lost their lives to thedownpour. Around Ile Eja/Carpenterarea of Agbowo, it was a gory sightand a tale of sorrow and tears asmany people could be seen swarminground dead bodies of children andgrown up victims of the flood.Sunday Tribune gathered that someof the dead victims included fourchildren of the same father andtheir grandfather, another set ofchildren and about five grown-ups.Attempts to speak with relatives ofsome of the deceased children wereunsuccessful, as they were not inthe right frame of mind to speak.One of them even fainted and wasresuscitated by sympathisers.One of the residents of the area,Isaac Adedeji, whose house was alsoaffected in the flood, stated thatthe area had not witnessedflooding in the past 12 years sincethe river around the area wasdredged. He laid the blame of theflooding at the doorsteps ofresidents whom he said were fondof dumping refuseindiscriminately.However, one of the miracle survivalwas that of a goat which waslocked in a building along withabout five others, which died as aresult of the flood.In Major Salawu and Quality areasof Agbowo, anger was in the air, aspeople gathered round flooded homesand two rivers in the communityblaming government for not doinganything to checkmate theincessant flooding of the areas.Sympathisers were also seen aroundthe home and corpse of a womanwho died in the flood. The son of thedeceased, who claimed to be a policeofficer, nearly threw caution intothe wind as he almost beat ourcorrespondent who went to cover thestory.When Sunday Tribune visited thearea, residents, led by a communityleader, Honourable Peter Oladitan,were seen trying to evacuate thosewho were still trapped in theirhouses.However, contrary to other reports,while speaking with SundayTribune, Honourable Oladitan, whois a former member of Ibadan NorthLocal Government Area caretakercommittee, said rescuers had beenable to retrieve 18 bodies, mostlythose of children as well as that ofa 76-year old who had drowned inher house.He added that the Bodija stream,which passes through thecommunity, overflowed its bank; asituation he said aided the flood,while also putting the blame onthos e who have formed the habbit ofdumping refuse in the stream.Family of eight loses six childrenin OluyoleA family of eight, on Saturday wassaid to have lost six children atOluyole area of Ibadan to the floodwhich submerged their house.As gathered, the father of thechildren, said to be on night duty,was not around when the incidenthappened, but the mother, said to beat home with the children, couldnot save the situation, as she couldonly wriggle herself out of thehouse.The bodies of the children have notbeen found as of press time, sincenobody could gain access to thewaterlogged house.Also, their parents were notavailable for comments, as theyhave already taken cover somewhereelse since there house was notinhabitable form.But a nearby resident, Deacon JohnOkatche of Christ Jubilee Church atAdewumi Layout, Oke Ayo area ofOluyole Estate, whose church wasadjacent to the victims' house, toldSunday Tribune that he had notencountered such problem in thearea since he got to Ibadan in 1986.“When we came in this morning, wediscovered a family living veryclose to the church, just right besideour toilet area; only the wifeescaped, the husband was on nightshift and their children, who sleptin the house, about seven of them,were nowhere to be found,” he said.Apart from this family, propertyworth millions of naira were lostto the flood by people living at OkeAyo, Alaafin Avenue, Rhema Chapelarea abd Sumal Foods area of theestate as most of the houses inthese areas were either submerged byflood or water-logged.Some of the affected residents, whospoke with Sunday Tribune,expressed shock, as they said theyhad never witnessed such flood tidesince over three decades that theyhad been living in the area.They blamed the situation on theoverflow of Eleiyele dam, which theysaid made the water to flow beyondits boundary. Lack of gooddrainage system was also said tobe one of the causes of the deluge.But an expert, Mr. Dupe Abimbola,who said he had worked at EleiyeleWater Works for years, said it couldnot have been as a result of the thefact that the dam was flushed outwhen it rained.According to him, “this problem isnot directly an Eleiyele problem, butchannelisation problem.“Eleiyele dam worksautomatically, once there is apressure builtdup on the dam, it hasautomatic valves that will open upand release water into Odo Ona. Itis a very simple thing.“But Odo Ona is not channeled toaccept that volume of water. So, itwill overflow into houses, spoilproperties and destroy lives as wehave seen today.“The only solution is to appeal togovernments to channelise Odo Onathe way they did to Ogunpa.”A bungalow was almost totallysubmerged at Oke Ayo area of OluyoleEstate.Fear of coffin during floodResidents of the area also becameapprehensive when they discoveredthat a coffin was floating on theflood that had taken over thestreet, raiding the suspicion thatcemeteries might have been affectedby the flood.Five swept away in OrogunAt the Orogun junction area of thecity, five people were said to havebeen swept away on Friday nightwhen a human chain formed by 20people broke in the middle of floodwater on UI-Ojoo road. Vehicles andother valuable property weresimilarly touched with electricpoles and cables lying dangerouslyon the road.The Celestial Church of Christ (CCC),Irapada Parish, which is located bythe roadside, was mostly affectedby the flood, even as the Shepherd-in-Charge and a survivor, MostSupreme Evangelist OnafujabiBabatunde, stated that about 57members of the church were trappedinside the auditorium while theflooding lasted. He revealed thatthey all ran for safety on thegalery of the auditorium, notingthat all of them survived.He called on the government to riseto the occasion by constructing areal bridge at the Orogun junction,instead of the box culvert whichwas constructed by the government,despite warnings that it might notcurtail erosion in the area.Indeed, most residents who spokewith Sunday Tribune attributed thesevere flooding to the habit of peoplewho dump refuse indiscriminately.While the flooding was ongoing onFriday night, many residents ofMokola-Roundabout area were seendumping refuse into the gutters.A community leader in Agbowo, PaLawal Ajibade, said the disasterwould persist if residents ofIbadan would not change theirattitude towards uncleanliness.Flood wrecks havoc in IbadanPolytechnicThe rain left a devastating effecton facilities at The Polytecnic,Ibadan as property worth millionsof naira were lost.When Sunday Tribune visited thepremises of the higher institution,some of the severly-affected werethe staff quarters, students’hostels, Bursary Department, thenewly-renovated assembly hall,registry department, Department ofMathematics and Statistics,lecture theatres and the Centre forInformation and DataManagement.Visibly worried about themagnitude of the damage, therector of the institution, ProfessorAyobami Odunola, assured studentsof the institution that effortswould be made to restore essentialservices lost to the flood.Five bodies recovered in NewGarageAt a community on the New Garage/Apata expressway, the chairman ofthe caretaker committee of OluyoleLocal Government Area of the state,Abass Aleshinloye, told SundayTribune that bodies of five peoplewere removed from different housesby youths in the community.In Maje, at Idi Mango area of Soka,an eyewitness told Sunday Tribunethat the flood swept away a carand killed a child.One swept away at Oje areaAt Temidire area of Oje, a family offour, which had been sacked by theflood and was looking for where tostay for the night, confided inSunday Tribune that the TemidireStream overflowed its bank andferried away one person.Woman lost poultry farm, fishpond to floodA poultry farm and a fish pondfilled with chicken and fishes werealso reportedly swept away by theflood on Friday at Onipon Estate,Podo area of Ibadan. The farm,which was reportedly owned by awoman, was said to be large withbirds fishes worth millions ofnaira.Corpse deposited in ApataThe corpse of a middle-aged womanwas also reportedly discovered atOke Ayo area of Apata on Saturday.According to a resident of the area,the people of the community foundthe body of the woman deposited atthe path of the flood.The resident added that efforts tolocate relatives of the womanproved abortive, while it wassuspected that the flood must havecarried the corpse from a fardistance.Family wiped out in IjokodoIn Ijokodo area, one of the peopleaffected was one Mr. KunleAkinyele, a member of ChristFamily Assembly WordCommunication Ministry (WOCOM)Onireke, Ibadan. He, alongside histwo daughters and his wife’snephew, who came to visit them, losthis life.He was said to be already in thehouse by the time the rain startedwith his daughters and his wife’snephew when the rain started.According to an eyewitness, a fenceclose to their residence fell on theirapartment killing everyone in thebuilding.Akinyele’s wife, Bukola, whoreturned home after the downpour,was said to have discovered theirbodies. Their bodies were said tohave been deposited at theUniversity College Hospital (UCH),Ibadan.Church, cars, buildings submergedin Odo OnaThe story was not different at OdoOna area of Ibadan on the Apataaxis as residents have only lossesto count. For Reverend EzekielOdunlade of Prepare Way for JesusEvangelical Church, it was a doubleloss as his church and propertywent with the rain. Speaking withSunday Tribune, Reverend Odunladesaid: “All that I was able to retrievewere some documents belonging tothe church. All other property havebeen trapped.”The rain did not spare the luxurybuilding and posh cars of Mr. IsaacAdebayo, whose three-year-old four-flat building was submerged toalmost to half of its entire height.While Sunday Tribune witnessedoccupants of the buildingsalvaging some property from theground floor, there was still no hopeof how to retrieve the three cars — aPathfinder , a Toyota Camry and aGolf — that were trapped in hisflooded compound.Ajibode community cut offThe Ajibode community, situatedbehind the University Of Ibadan,was completely cut off from thetown as the dreaded river in thecommunity overran its bank,shutting people at home, whilemany residents, who were outsidebefore the rain, could not go in. Eventhe new bridge, allegedly beingconstructed for the community bythe UI authorities, as tall as it is,was totally submerged by water.A resident of the community, Mr.Yomi Ogunsanya, told our reporterthat he could not get home, addingthat his wife, who was withinAjibode at the time of the rain, alsocould not sleep in their house.Sunday Tribune learnt that thosewho could brave it had to go throughOloguneru, along Eruwa-Eleyeleroad, to come out of the community.Police, student rescue woman inApeteAt Apete area, a combined team ofpolice and students of ThePolytechnic, Ibadan were able torescue a lady who had drowned.It was also gathered fromeyewitnesses that, at least, fivevehicles with unspecified number ofpassengers were submerged in theflood and they were yet to be rescuedor their corpses found as of the timeof writing this report. Some of thepeople who spoke with SundayTribune said some members of thecommunity were still missing,raising fear that the missingpersons might have been washedaway by the flood.Foodstuff prices soarAs a result of the complete cut off ofApete from the rest of Ibadan, owingto the total colapse of the linkingbridge, prices of foodstuff have beenhiked by traders in Apete areabecause of the sudden panic buyingby residents. Puqued by thedevelopment, students of ThePolytecnic Ibadan, who constitutethe bulk of the community,immediately issued a sternwarning to traders in the area tostop the arbitrary increase in theprices of goods or face the wrath ofthe students.When Sunday Tribune visited thearea early yesterday, commercialmotorcycle riders, popularly calledokada, were charging N500 perpassengers in and out of Apete,while buses were charging N200. Oneof them told Sunday Tribune thatthe increament became necessarybecause of the distance they neededto cover before getting out of Apete.Parts of Apata, Oluyole, Owode cutoffAlso, communities, such as Apata,Oluyole, Owode Estate and others,were completely cut off other partsof the Ibadan metropolis as a resultof the flood that overflowed bridgeslinking the communities.The Odo Ona Bridge that links thearea with Apata was completelyoverflowed by river, making theroad impassable. The bridgelinking 7UP area in Oluyole to Mobilarea also collapsed and cars couldbeen seen in the rivers.A resident, who sent a distress textmessage to Sunday Tribune said:“As I speak now, we at Oluyole havebeen cut off. A bridge has beentotally washed away. We neverknow how to link Ring Road now.God dey sha, we go survive.”Olubadan commiserate withresidentsThe Olubadan of Ibadan, ObaSamuel Odulana Odugade I, hascommiserated with residents ofIbadan over the flood that ravagedthe city on Friday.The monarch, who expressedsadness over the heavy loss of livesand property caused by the massiveflood that swept through the city,said the flood was unfortune.The Olubadan, in a press releasemade available to Sunday Tribune,symphatised with the victims,especially families who lost peopleand property to the disaster.He also prayed tha Almighty Godgrant the families of the departedthe fortitude to bear the irreparablelosses.The traditional ruler, however,called on the Oyo State governor,Senator Isiaka Ajimobi, to givematerial and financialassistance to the victims of theflood, in order to alleviate theirsuffering, while appealing to thestate government to intensifyefforts to clear the drainages inthe city.Oyo deploys helicopter, reliefmaterials to victims of floodingThe state governor, Senator Ajimobi,procured the services of an helicopterfor the rescue of citizens anddistribution of relief materials toall victims of the flooding havocwhich swept round some key placesin the state capital on Saturday.The government also enlisted thesupport of the GOC, 2nd MechanisedDivision, Major General Mubarak,for the provision of bailey bridgesover the two rivers whose bridgeswere swept off at Apete and Olomiareas.The governor, who orderedimmediate procurement of thehelicopter for an immediate rapidassessment of the affected areasand rescue of trapped victims of theflood, also ordered immediatesetting up of two camps at the Apeteand Odo Ona areas of the statecapital for immediate palliativemeasures towards the flooding.Governor Ajimobi also orderedimmediate procurement ofblankets, mattresses, drugs andfood to all affected areas, so as toensure that the sufferingencountered by the people werebrought to the barest minimum.Governor cuts short UmrahThe governor, who immediately cutshort his pilgrimage to Mecca forthe lesser Hadj and immediatelyheaded for the airport for the nextavailable flight to Nigeria, said helearnt with great shock andsadness of the flood disaster andexpressed sympathy to the familiesand victims of the disaster.On learning of the disaster,Governor Ajimobi immediatelydirected the deputy governor of thestate, Mr. Moses Alake Adeyemo,commissioners and all localgovernment chairmen of theaffected areas to immediatelybegin a massive coordination of therescue, assessment and palliativeexercise aimed at providing succourfor the victims of the flood.The team, which immediatelyembarked on the assessmentexercise, paid on-the-spot visits tothe Eleiyele dam, the collapsedbridge at Apete, Ijokodo junctionarea, the collapsed bridge at Olomi,the Parliament road leading toPremier Hotel and the bridge at OdoOna area of the state capital, wherethe deputy governor interviewedresidents of the area on thedisaster and their immediateneeds.The state government alsoimmediately contacted allrelevant state and federalagencies involved in rescueexercises, such as the NationalEmergency Management Agency(NEMA) and the State EmergencyManagement Agency (SEMA) whichofficials were deployed on the stategovernment-procured helicopter, aswell as house-to-house visits, so asto feel the pulse of the victims, aswell as ascertain the level ofdestruction occasioned by the flood.Governor Ajimobi used theopportunity to express his sympathyto the victims of the destructionoccasioned by the flood.He promised that government woulddo all within its powers to preventreoccurrence of sad incidences likethe flooding, stating thatflooding, like every naturaldisaster, was one of the dangersthat man was incapable ofpredicting.He said one of the plans that thegovernment had was to continuewith its massive drainageevacuation exercise which hadalready begun in all the roads ofthe state, as well as throughclearing all water channels,removing all illegal structuresblocking water channels andpassageways and water right ofway.Akinjide condoles withIbadan residentsThe Minister of State for FederalCapital Territory (FCT), Ms. JumokeAkinjide, also commiserated withvictims of the flood.In a release made available toSunday Tribune on Saturday,Akinjide, who is an indigene ofIbadan, said; “I, Oloye OlajumokeAkinjide, the Minister of State,FCT, use this medium to express myheartfelt condolences to theExecutive Governor of Oyo state,Senator Abiola Ajimobi, and thegood people of Oyo State, particularthe families and friends of thevictims of the unfortunate floodthat ravaged some parts of Ibadanyesterday in which, I was informed,valuable properties and lives werelost.
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