Priscilla Ofunre, Ado-Ekiti
The heavy rainfall in the wee hours of Wednesday, in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, ravaged a section of the city and destroyed multi-million Naira worth of property.
Ureje area, along polytechnic road and other adjoining communities like Boom Town, Eminrin and Ijelu village, fondly called Aba Oyinbo by commuters, were the areas affected.
The torrential rainfall started around 8:00p.m, on Tuesday, and fell intermittently throughout the night until about 6:00a.m, on Wednesday.
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 1:00a.m and lasted till 6:00am.
He said commuters traveling along that route between that six hours had to park their vehicles at the nearby filling stations and waited until it subsided.
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The source said the flood also surged into a church and some five houses located within the vicinity of Ureje bridge.
“Nobody could cross that bridge to the Polytechnic side or go into Ado -Ekiti city. Most of the residents had to wake up and caught a glimpse of the ravaging fast moving water”.
Also, residents of Boom Town and Eminrin, had to stay indoors till 12 noon before they could cross Ureje stream that submerged their environment.
Chairman of the community, Mr. Oladimeji, appealed to government to dredge the stream to lower the water to prevent recurrence of the flooding.
According to Oladimeji, “This Ureje stream was dredged about three years ago, but the job was not well done and the effect is what we are feeling today.
“About four houses could have been destroyed but for communal efforts made to ensure that we concrete the same inner Ureje bridge that linked us with Oke-ila region.
“There was need for government to do more thorough job to dredge to reduce the water level”
Residents of Ikere-Ekiti also felt a dose of the devastation as the flood rendered many homeless while property worth millions of Naira were destroyed by flood.
The affected areas included the second largest places in Ikere: Kajola Adun Ogbon in Oke Osun, Alade filling Station Area in Odo Oja.
Journalists, who visited the area observed that many houses, livestocks, gardens and cars have been destroyed.