Call it a day of rage and bedlam and you may not be wrong. It was a day the heavens’ violent and relentless yawning left residents of Lagos and Ogun States at the mercy of nature’s cruel hands.
All across the two states, the story bear a familiar refrain. Flood, flood and flood everywhere. While the rains came as a welcome relief from the baking heat that endured between January to April this year, its present offering has come, rather as a pill too lethal to swallow.
With residents displaced from their homes and roads taken over by flood waters, this is one gift nature has unleashed with a tinge of vengeance. And since Thursday, from Lagos to Ogun State, virtually everyone has been counting his loses and lamenting his anguish, just as every home has equally been counting its misery.
Leaving sorrows, tears and despair on its trail, residents of the two states recounted their experiences to The Nation on Saturday:
Boloaji –Ikorodu: The rain which started at 7pm, continued relentlessly till 8am. We woke up only to find that the entire area had been completely over run by flood waters. Both human and vehicular movements were seriously hampered. The development led to many people staying indoors. While those who ventured out, did so with the help of an improvised canoe, others watched in abject helplessness. An area that was never used to canoe, suddenly witnessed the presence of such means of transportation. Apart from canoes, motorcycles were also used in ferrying people.
In what seemed like different strokes for different folks, Bolaji told The Nation that while it was lamentation for so many of the residents, it was triumph for commercial motorcycle riders, popularly called okada and canoe operators who had to quickly cash in on the torment of the residents by mother nature. Bolaji said that the okada and canoe operators made a kill of the bad situation, as they charged between N50 and N100 to get people across the floods ravaged area.
According to Bolaji, the nearness of the affected area to a canal also contributed to the flood watersFor Agbebi –Akute, Ogun State, it was hell let loose Thursday and Friday as residents of Alagbole and Iyakoyo were literally held hostage by flood waters occasioned by the torrential rain that lasted all day. For those who dared to make it out, it was not easy for them as they had to be carried on the back of others. But the service was not free.
According to him, it was a dreadful sight to behold as trucks and canoes were freely used in ferrying people to escape being drowned in the flood. “I was on my way to work and had to make a U-turn when I could hardly discern the road from the gutters. Everywhere was overtaken by flood waters.
“For those carrying people on their backs, they charged as high as between N150 and N200, while canoes charged between N250 and N300. But for some families, there appeared to be no escape route following the invasion of their homes by the merciless flood waters.
For motorists who thought they could have their way with the rampaging flood, they were reduced to ‘submarines’. But so far, there was no reported casualty.
In the home of a certain family, they had to evacuate their children to a family friends’ house as their apartment was reduced to a swimming pool.”
Recounting her experience, Yemisi- Akute, Ogun State, “said some part of Akute was like an island, no thanks to a dam which content was coincidentally released at the same time the floods came calling. Vehicular traffic was marred by the large body of water that took the entire road by the jugular. As late as 2am, long queues of vehicles could be seen snaking their way uncertainly to their various destinations.
For residents of Lambe in Ogun State, they were trapped in their homes and those who made it out were not so lucky to find their way home as the major road going to their houses was enveloped by flood waters.
Stanley –Ayobo, Lagos State: In Ayobo area of Lagos, houses could be seen submerged. Residents had a Herculean task entering their houses. It took some of the residents about five days to bail out water. It was such a pitiable sight to behold. The topography of the area further compounded the problem. I could not immediately confirm this, but a friend said the bridge linking Lagos and Ogun States was impassable because it was submerged.
Ndubuisi, Alimosho, Lagos: At Aboru, both married and single women freely lent themselves to be carried by men. The situation was so frightening that they were no longer bothered how they were being carried. What they were interested in was to be helped to a safer area from the flood strewn area.
At Apple Junction, Femi Kila and several other streets around Ago Palace Way, in Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos, many residents were sacked from their homes by the Thursday and Friday’s downpour, which last for more than 18 hours.
According to Bayo Adeoye, the rain left many residents of the area trapped for several hours.
Adeoye said residents who left home early in the morning were trapped because their homes were overtaken by flood waters.
He said the flood waters made most of the houses in the area inhabitable. “The rains left may people along the Ago Palace Way homeless. It was tough for the people because their homes were overtaken by water. You can imagine somebody who went to work in the morning, but could not gain access to the house by the time he came back.”
In the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area of Lagos State, Idewu, Baale, Wilmer Streets and many others in the area were left flooded by the rain. A resident, Ayodele Olalere, said the rain left many businesses paralyzed.
According to Olalere, residents resorted to the use of canoes and other floating materials to move around. “The flood paralyzed many businesses in the area. People started using canoes to move round the neighourhood.”
For residents of Isheri Oshun, Burknor Estate, suburbs of Lagos, it was double calamity. While the flood waters made their homes inhabitable, different kinds of reptiles ensured that they never went anywhere near their abandoned homes as they swiftly took over the waters.
Femi Salawu, a resident, said he moved out of the area after discovering that the waters were infested by snakes. Salawu vowed not to go back home until the waters receded. “I am not going back to that place until the water dries up. You cannot imagine what we are going through. Big snakes found their ways into homes of people, leaving us with no choice than to run for our dear lives,” Salawu explained.
Meanwhile, road users on the Apapa -Oshodi express way are still subjected to untold hardship from the havoc the Thursday downpour wreaked across the metropolis.
The problem is more compounded due to the prevalent bad road and blocked drainages that have left the route from Oshodi Apapa still flooded.
The deep gully at the Mile Two FESTAC end of the road almost renders the road impassible. Motorists who ply the route yesterday where held up in traffic for hours, while many commuters resorted to trekking to their offices.
At Sanya and Second Rainbow Bus stop, it was a vast stretch of water covering the road.
“The situation is really disheartening, we have been on this road for over an hour now, we just have to come down and trek to Mile 2 so as to join another bus to Apapa, said a commuter who gave her name as Julian.
Julian wondered why Julius Berger reconstructed only one lane and left the other unattended to. “Since last year, the drainage from Second Rainbow Bus stop has been blocked and this makes it impossible for the flood to recede whenever it rains.
“We were excited when we saw Julius Berger working on the road from the Apapa- Oshodi route, hoping that before the peak of the raining season, there would have been some rehabilitation work on the other lane, but sadly, nothing of such happened and many residents that ply this route can tell you that the road has been blocked since Thursday.”
Another commuter, Jude Okezie, said the situation is so unfortunate considering that Federal Government visited the road severally last year and yet failed to address the challenge before the peak of this year’s rainy season.
“This situation was very obvious last year because the entire stretch from Apapa to Oshodi has completely failed on both lanes. The Minister of Works and other top government functionaries visited this road last year and they saw the challenge. Relief came when we saw Berger working on the other lane, but even work on that lane has stopped also.
Okezie said Julius Berger, knowing the challenge on the road would have helped open the drainage channel while still working on the other lane. “They are professionals and should know better where the challenges are on the road and could have put up palliative repairs while still working on the other lane. That way, the impact would not have been this severe.” he added.
For residents of Gloryland community in Isheri Olofin, Egbe Idimu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), they have appealed to Lagos State Government to urgently come to their aid and rescue them from the problem of flooding in the area which started about seven years ago.
The situation, a spokesman for the community, Mr. Isaac Okorie said, got worse with the construction of the LASU/Iba road, because the construction company, Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC) diverted erosion to the community.
According to Okorie, a series of letters have been written to the appropriate authorities with no response. The Thursday’s downpour, he said has rendered most of the residents in the community homeless.
“As early as 2am yesterday (Thursday), when the rains started, residents were trapped in their houses and have been calling on neighbors for rescue; right now, more than eight houses are submerged in the flood. We are appealing to the state government to come to our aid,” Okorie said.
The streets affected according to him are; Bishop Ogbonna, Prince Wale, Prince Hakeem Balogun, among others.
He also decried the non-existence of drainages in the area, despite promises by the LCDA chairman.
Lagos to dedicate today sanitation on drainage clearing
Meanwhile, Lagos State Government has that it will dedicates today’s sanitation exercise to the evacuation of drainage channels as measures to curtail the effect of torrential rainfall that would be witnessed in the next two weeks in the state.
State Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, said this was necessary considering that the coming weeks will be the most critical peak of the raining season.
He urged residents to come out for the exercise which has been specifically dedicated to the cleaning of drains in the state environment.
He admonished Lagosians to join hands with the state government to ensure a flood free Lagos, saying his Ministry has also intensified its mid-rain cleaning programme.
Bello said the Ministry of the Environment has just completed the pre-rain cleaning exercise aimed at ensuring that all forms of impediments on drainage channels were removed to allow for effective discharge of storm water into the lagoon.
He urged residents not to panic as all the major drainage channels had been cleaned and dredged in anticipation of this year’s rains, adding that as the rains get more intense during the year, Lagosians should relate effectively with their respective Resident Engineers and Drainage Maintenance Officers whose phone numbers have been published and presently been posted to all the 57 Local Government and Council Development Areas in the state, to tackle flood related matters.
He warned residents who still patronize cart pushers to desist from this illegal act as the refuse collected in each neighborhood, were been dumped into canals close to them at night by the cart pushers.
He also urged Lagosians to patronize PSP Operators who will ensure that collected wastes in each local government were properly disposed of.
The Commissioner also warned Inter-State Bus Operators, state transport owners and road transport workers association/unions, commercial bus operators and okada riders to comply with the restriction of human and vehicular movement order which is between 7.00am and 10.00am.
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