20101010
This Day

No fewer than 700 persons have been displaced following the recent flooding of about 10 communities around Mile 12 and Ikorodu area of Lagos State just as unofficial report put the number of missing persons at 3.

Consequently, some private and public schools including Nodoles College and Itowolo Primary School among others in the affected communities are currently deserted because their premises have been completely flooded.

The affected communities include Ajegunle, Owode Elede, Thomas Laniyan Estate, Owode Onirin, Agboyi Ketu, Owode Orile, Odo Ogun, Itowolo, Agiliti and some part of Isheri, all of which are located few metres away from the Ogun River.

The flooding was due to the release of water from the Oyan Dam by the Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority into the Ogun River, therefore leading to the overflowing of the Ogun River and causing collateral effects on some communities in Lagos State bordering the river.

Speaking with THISDAY yesterday, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) General Manager, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu said he had not received the report relating three missing persons.

Other states of the federation too have been ravaged by floods in the last few weeks. At least 48 people were confirmed dead and 35,000 others displaces as flood submerged 23 villages in Goronyo Local Government Area of northern Sokoto State.

Of the 23 affected villages, according to reports, 15 were submerged just as thousands of houses and farmlands were washed away. Some of the victims are missing; we just got information that 53 dead bodies were seen around Argungu in Kebbi State and majority of them are suspected to be from this area.

In Jigawa State too, the federal government had opened the gates at two swollen dams, which consequently led to massive flood that displaced about two million people in different local government in the state.

Water from the Challawa and Tiga dams swept through rural areas in the state, which according to the report, had affected about 5000 villages in the typically arid region approaching the Sahara Desert.