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A heavy downpour on Tuesday that lasted till the early hour of Wednesday has ravaged a section of the Ado Ekiti capital city and cut off certain parts of the metropolis from the main city.
An eye witness account stated that the area mainly affected is the Ureje area, along Polytechnic road and other adjoining communities like Boom Town, Eminrin and Ijelu village, fondly called Aba Oyinbo by commuters.
The rain started around 8:00pm on Tuesday and fell intermittently throughout the night until 6:00am 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 overrun by the flood.
He said commuters travelling along that route between that six hours had to park their vehicles at the nearby filling stations and waited until it subsided. The source said the flood also surged into a church and about 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 to catch a glimpse of the ravaging fast-moving water. Also, residents of the Boom Town, Eminrin, had to stay indoors till 12 noon before they could cross Ureje stream that devastated their environment,”
The Chairman of the community who identified himself just as Mr. Oladimeji, appealed to government to dredge the stream to lower the water to prevent recurrence of the flooding. “This Ureje stream was dredged about three years ago, but the job was not done well and the effect is what we are feeling today. About four houses could have been destroyed if not concrete applied on the inner side of the Ureje bridge that linked us with Oke Ila region.
“There is need for the government to do more thorough job to dredge in order to reduce the water level,” he said. Residents of Ikere Ekiti also felt a dose of the devastation as the flood rendered many homeless while property worth millions of Naira was destroyed by the flood.
