Rainstorm kills three,destroys properties in Kwara

No fewer than three people – two children and a young man – drowned in floods following a downpour and rainstorm in  Ilorin, the Kwara  State capital which started about 11pm on Wednesday.

Properties said to worth millions of naira were destroyed. About 25 cars were swept off where they were parked.

The flood also swept off a large amount of soil under the rail track of the  Nigeria Railway Corporation, which cut the road into two and made it impossible for trains to move. A section of the rail track behind Kingdom Heritage Secondary school was also affected.

Consequently, no fewer than 1,000 passengers on a train travelling from Lagos to the northern part of the country were stranded. One of the passengers, Sofi Mufiu, said they had been stranded for over nine hours.

Our correspondent who visited the areas on Thursday observed that relatives of the dead victims were in a mournful mood while other victims that lost their valuables lamented their losses. The worst hit were the Offa Garage and  Asa Dam areas.

Fences of many of the buildings around the areas collapsed, while big trees that had been uprooted by the flood blocked the ever-busy Ajasse-Ipo Road, causing gridlock.

The police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps and Road Transport Management Authority ensured security and traffic control.

The two children that died were identified simply as Basirat,5; and Garfa, 3.

They were spending the holiday with their grandmother who lives at the Offa Garage area.

An eyewitness, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that the children were inside their grandmother’s residence when the rain started.

He added that when the flood became intense, water started trickling into the house. One of them opened the front door so they could escape from the flood, but they were overpowered by it.

Enraged youths made attempts to attack a hotel owned by Senator Smart Adeyemi. The youths said the construction of the hotel narrowed the water way which caused the flooding.

The youths hurled stones at the property, but the timely arrival of security personnel prevented them from damaging the hotel.

The Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Command, Mr. Ambrose Aisabor, confirmed the death of the two children.

Project Director, Ambico Senderian Nigeria Limited, the company handling the Asa River Channelisation, Mr. Idowu Salawu,  said the downpour had increased the water level of the Asa River.

He added that the river, which runs across the town, was being dredged to reduce incidence of flooding.

The Kwara State Commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Abubakar Mora,  who visited the affected areas, said, “We have seen the cause of the flood; it is the blockage of the drainage channels. We will clear them on time so that this tragedy will not happen again,” Mora said.