Residents Count Loses, As River Surge Wreaks Havoc In Osogbo

By Ayobami Agboola, Osogbo

Residents of Osogbo, the state capital of Osun are now counting their loses as constant rainfall led to an upsurge of Osun river which displaced many residents and destroyed properties worth millions of naira .

The downpour , which started Thursday evening through the night wrecked serious havoc in some parts of the metropolis.

Some of the affected areas as at the time of filing this report include Gbodofon community, Awosuru area, Onitodunu Baruwa Area, Idowu Ajibola area, Oke Arungbo Estate(Zone 10&11 and Ibu-Amo community among others.

The surge, which displaced Baale of Ibu-amo from his house started around 5PM on Friday and later turned to torrent flood with resultant damage.

It was gathered that the river surge could not allow the residents of the area to evacuate some of their belongings to a safer location.

CityMirrorNews Correspondent observed a carpentry workshop, which was located very close to Osun River as it was being submerged by water.

Also, Mr Kamoru Omolade, a mechanic around the area said the flood has washed away vehicle engines valued at N 750,000 naira. He added that about five mini inter city buses were also submerged.

Kamoru said, “It was just like a play when we noticed the surge in the river and it has already reached my chest before I could move some of the engines that customers brought to me for servicing.”

At Onirodunu, Baruwa area, the river surge started in the midnight on Friday and sipping into living apartments which caused people living along the street which is very close to the bank of the Osun River to start evacuating their personal belongings out of their houses.

Eyewitnesses stated that the whole problem started in the midnight when residents were awoken by flood which started flowing into their houses.

Alhaji Moshood Adigun, a resident stated that, they never knew Osun River could overflow to that extent.

He further explained that most of the houses were built very far from the river, wondering what could have caused the the unfortunate incident .

Another resident, who simply identified herself as Mummy Precious described the incident as unfortunate, calling on the state government to come to their aid.

In her words, “we are calling on the government under the leadership of good Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola to come to our aid. We are in need of his assistance urgently.

“Government should help us. We are not planning to relocate but we need help”.

It would be recalled that similar flooding incident occurred in Osogbo in July , 2010 following a downpour, in which properties worth millions of naira were lost to the flood.