FACING THE FUTURE…
The Wednesday midnight heavy downpour has ravaged a section of Ado-Ekiti and cut off certain part of the metropolis from the main city.
This was coming as Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has promised that his government would ensure timely intervention to relocate indigenes of the state living in riverine areas to save them from impending floods.
Mainly affected areas in Ado-Ekiti included the Ureje, along Federal Polytechnic Road and other adjoining communities like Boom Town, Eminrin and Ijelu Village, fondly called Aba Oyinbo.
The people of Ikere-Ekiti also felt a dose of the devastating effect, as houses and cars worth millions of naira were submerged by flood.
The torrential rainfall started around 8pm on Tuesday and fell intermittently throughout the night until 6am yesterday.
A resident of the area, Mr. Idowu Adaramoye, said the bridge on Ado-Ijan-Ikare Road, which also linked the capital city to the Federal Polytechnic region was overran by flood around 1am till 6am, saying commuters travelling along that route were affected but parked their vehicles in nearby filling stations and waited for six hours until the flood receded.
The source added that the flood also surged into a church and about five houses located within the vicinity of Ureje Bridge. “Nobody could cross over the bridge to the Polytechnic side or go into Ado-Ekiti city. Most of the residents of the area woke to the bewildering sight of ravaging fast-moving waters,” he said.
Also, residents of the Boom Town and Eminrin had to stay indoors till 12 p.m. yesterday before they could cross to the other side.
The Chairman of the community, Mr. Yemi Oladimeji, appealed to government to dredge the Ureje stream to lower the water level in order to prevent recurrence of this flooding.
He said: “The Ureje stream was dredged about three years ago, but the job was not welldone and the effect is what we are seeing today.
“About four houses could have been destroyed, but for communal efforts in which we concretised the same inner Ureje bridge that linked us with Oke-Ila region.
“There’s need for government to do more thorough job to dredge to reduce the water level.”
The affected areas in the second largest city of IkereEkiti include: Kajola and Adun Ogbon in Oke-Osun as well as Alade Filling Station Area in Odo-Oja.
Meanwhile, Anambra State governor has promised that his government would ensure timely intervention to protect indigenes of the state living in riverine areas to save them from impending flood. L-R: Justice of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Uzo Anyanwu-Ndukwe; First Lady of Ekiti State, Bisi Fayemi; Group Executive Director, Dangote Industries, Halima Dangote; Executive Director, Women Advocate Research and Documentation Centre, Dr. Abimbola AkiyodeAfolabi; Executive Director, Access Bank, Victor Etuokwu; Chairman, Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Development, Senator Betty Apiafi; and CEO, Dangote Foundation, Zouera Youssoufo at the 2019 Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference, with the theme “Facing the Future”, in Lagos… yesterday