Man dies as flood ravages Ondo communities

A middle-aged man, identified simply as Glory, on Friday, June 23, lost his life at Bethel Estate, a community in Oba-Ile, Akure, the Ondo State, as flood continued to ravage more communities in the state capital.

It was gathered that the man, a Federal Government worker, was coming from work when he was swept away by flood on Friday.

Confirming the incident, the Assistant Secretary of the Landlord Association of Bethel Estate, Oba-Ile, Pastor Gbenga Ojuloge, on Sunday, said the community needs government’s intervention to help dredge the waterways to prevent future occurrence.

Several communities suffered from severe flooding on Saturday, as many access roads were cut off due to the rainfall that started on Friday and lasted more than 24 hours.

Ojuloge said the waterway had turned into a death trap, claiming lives every year.

He stated that all the efforts made by the community to ensure that the flood was kept at bay every year had not yielded any result.

He said: “We are using this opportunity to draw the attention of governments at all levels to what is going on in our community.

“This is the main access road to the community but the flood is already taking what we have used our sweats to construct.

“Everything you can see on the bridge was done by the landlords in the community, but we discover that the flood will just come and push everything away. So we are calling on government to come to our aid.

“On Friday, we lost a person here. This is because all the waters coming from Ijapo, Alagbaka, and Oja-Oba are passing through here. So immediately it rains, there is no access to our community again.”

Also speaking, one of the landlords, Olusola Osupala, said once it rained, access to the estate was always cut off.

Osupala said the community had written to several intervention agencies to help save the situation, but all to no avail.

The Star