THE joy of most residents in Ibadan, Oyo State, that the persistent weekend rain and subsequent flooding did not claim any life was shortlived on Tuesday as five persons, including two policemen, were discovered to have died in the downpour.
Three bloated corpses were, on Tuesday, seen floating on ‘Dandaru dam’ on Secretariat/Parliament Road, Ibadan.
The three bodies, two of which were identified as policemen in the service of the state police command, were found floating in the early hours of the day on the dam close to the Fisheries Department of the state Ministry of Agriculture.
The victims, Ojo Adelusi; Sunday Ijoh; Sunkami Iyiola, Wole Iyiola and Ope Ogungbemi, were said to be returning from a social function around 10.30 p.m. on Saturday, when their car fell into a canal at Favours area of Bodija, Ibadan.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that while their car was discovered early on Sunday morning, three of the victims were later found floating yesterday morning. The other two are yet to be found.
Ijoh, whose, body was among those found, was an officer of the State Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), while Sunkanmi Iyiola and Wole Iyiola were siblings. Wole, it was further gathered, got married about two weeks ago.
A sister to two of the deceased, Mrs Bunmi Qudus, told newsmen that five persons were inside the car before they were swept away by the raging flood, adding that the family had been searching for them since Sunday morning.
“When we couldn’t find them, we reported at the police station.”They all left home on Saturday for a social function.
“But, after sometime, when we could not contact anyone of them, we thought they would return on Sunday morning, but, we didn’t see them only to be called that their car had been discovered.”
Tears flowed freely as relatives and hundreds of sympathisers thronged the Dandaru River to watch the swollen corpses of the victims.
Officials of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), those of the police, fire service and other security agencies were at the scene to help in the recovery of the bodies.
The corpses were later taken in an ambulance to Adeoyo State Hospital, Ring-Road.
Meanwhile, search teams had been dispatched to other parts of the city to help find other missing corpses.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor, who was also at the scene where the corpses were found, confirmed that only three corpses had been recovered out of the five missing persons.
According to her, search teams had been sent to other parts of the city to recover the other two corpses.
She also confirmed that two policemen, who were on leave, were among the five persons being searched for. “We have found one of the policemen,” she said.
Meanwhile, friends and families of those whose corpses were recovered from the Dandaru river, on Tuesday, have called on the state governor to find a permanent solution to flooding in the state. They made the call at the scene of the evacuation.
The bereaved, who lamented that were it not for the flood, their family members would have been alive, urged the state government to “please, save us from this agony.”
The state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, in a reaction to the flood said “but for the proactive measures the government undertook late last year and early in the year in reconstructing nine critically dilapidated bridges and dredging 43 rivers and streams across the state, the flooding that occurred on Saturday/Sunday in the Ibadan, the capital of the state, would have been worse.”
The governor said this through his Special Adviser on Media, Dr Festus Adedayo, adding that the government had also engaged in massive sensitisation measures, especially with the residents and stakeholders of flood-prone areas, even up till last week, on one-on-one basis, as well as on the radio and television.
The governor also said that part of the proactive measures it took over the flooding exercise was to work in partnership with the World Bank.
In a related development, following the fallout of last weekend’s downpour that damaged the ongoing construction of Apete new bridge and the makeshift bridge, constructed to ease the movement of people, residents of the area have started using canoes to ensure their movement in and out of the area.
The use of canoe as a means of transport, Nigerian Tribune learnt, started on Monday, when some sailors were inspired to come to the rescue of the people.
When the Nigerian Tribune visited the place, yesterday, it was observed that the majority of the people in the community, had embraced the new development. The people, set for the day’s activities, filed in a long queue on both sides of the river bank to be ferried across.
Nigerian Tribune also learnt that some of the people waiting in the queue were those who could not afford the high cost of other means of transportation.
Mrs Ali Sakirat, a trader, told the Nigerian Tribune that the fare charged by okada riders and taxi drivers to ply through other routes from the community to the city was on the high side, adding that, “okada riders and taxi drivers are charging nothing less than N200 and N250 to Sango and Eleyele which I cannot afford on daily basis, but the canoe operators charge N50, which is affordable for a trader like me. What will I be left with if I spend that huge amount only on transportation?” she asked.
Mr Babatunde Amos, a businessman, who also embraced the development told the Nigerian Tribune that it was a good initiative to ease movement with less amount, adding that, “since the local and state governments have failed in reconstructing the bridge, the general masses at the grass root will provide an escape route for themselves. The canoe operators saw our plight and they came to our rescue,” he stated.
Efforts by the Nigerian Tribune to speak with one of the canoe operators proved abortive as they were busy conveying people from one river bank to the other.
Nigerian Tribune also gathered that the Ido Local Government has made necessary provisions to reconstruct another makeshift bridge to ease movement in and out of the community.
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