Falling stones render septuagenarian, family homeless

A 70-year-old retiree, Mr Oludotun Egbeola, his wife Ronke and their four children have been rendered homeless in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, by big stones that rolled down from a rock and destroyed their two houses during the heavy downpour penultimate Monday.

Pa Egbeola told our correspondent that he and his wife were lucky to escape death when the huge stones rolled down as the heavy rain raged. He added that flood occasioned by the downpour also washed away their property, which included all their clothes, documents, furniture electrical appliances, household utensils and money.

Mrs Ronke Egbeola recalled, “As the rain was pouring, we were staying somewhere outside. Suddenly, we heard a deafening noise like thunder. We thank God that we did not think at that moment that because rain was falling, we should run into the house.

“Again, there was a more horrible sound like an eruption coming from on top of the house and we started running away from it. As we were running, falling stones were destroying the houses. When we got to the lower part of the area, we looked back and saw the houses had been destroyed and flood was sweeping away all our property.

Pa Egbeola lamented they were unable to salvage anything from the house. He said kind neighbours had been housing and feeding them since the incident.

“All my children are unemployed. I have four children to take care of. I am asking for assistance from philanthropists and the government, both state and federal. All the vital documents of my children, our clothes, everything have been washed away by the flood. Even money that we took as loan to pay our children’s school fees, the flood washed it away,” the old man said.