One killed, Many Missing As Flood Ravages Ogun Communities

A 14-year-old secondary school student has been killed, while unknown number of people were reportedly swept away by flood in Ogun state.

The incident occured in Sagamu Local government area of the state on Tuesday during a downpour.

Our correspondent gathered that, the flooding affected more than four communities, including: Ajaka, Express Junction, Ogunyanwo, Olayinka, Isale-Ojumele.

The flood also destroyed properties worth millions of Naira.

The victim who was said to be a student of Agbele Community High School due to the uniform he reportedly had on, got dragged away and drowned in the flood.

According to an eyewitness, the victim fell off a bike which was being dragged away by the flood.

Residents of the area lamented that valuable goods and properties are always lost anytime it rains due to small drainage system in the area.

They said, the community can’t withstand the impacts of the erosion which is usually highly enormous.

They said some motorcycles were swept away by the torrent, while many valuable goods and properties were also lost due to the heavy downpour.

A resident of the area, Banjo Adeoye who spoke to our correspondent said, “We had something like this last year and it was more terrible, we cried out to the government but no help. We don’t have good drainage system in this axis.

“The water has nowhere to pass but to start flooding our houses. We thought the information from last year will help them plan well for this year but here we are today, a boy lost his life, we don’t know how many okada or property we will have to look for.”

The residents of the area however, berated the state government who they said did nothing to provide succour for the affected communities and individuals.

The state Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya on Wednesday, confirmed the incident when he paid an on the spot assessment visit to the affected areas.

Oresanya said, the redesigning of the state drainage master plan of the state had become imperative.

He said, “The government would begin implementation of some of the short medium and long term solutions which include dredging of canals and desilting of blocked drainages.

“We call on the federal government for assistance to ameliorate the perennial challenges.”