Another tragedy
struck yesterday in Abuja, following early morning down pour as a
family of three,
in one of the elite estates located at Lokogoma
District of the nation’s capital, lost their lives to flood.
One of the deceased, identified as
Kenneth was said to be a resident of IPENT 5 Estate in Lokogoma. He was
allegedly taking his two children to a summer lesson around 7am in their
Honda SUV Jeep when he ran into the flash flood at Pengassan Estate,
Phase 2 junction, which over flooded the car, killing all the three
occupants.
This tragedy was coming barely 30 days after the flood that claimed another family of three at Dei-Dei area of Abuja.
When Daily Sun visited the scene of the
flood tragedy, some neighbours and sympathisers of the deceased family
said the man and his children met their untimely death because the man
resisted a warning by some people who saw the force of the flood and
advised him against driving into it. Addressing newsmen, the Director
General of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) Idris Abbas, said his team got to the place late when some
residents had already rescued the bodies of the man and his two
children.
“My team got to the place late when the
dead bodies of the man and his children had been rescued by some locals.
We could not carry out further assessment of the situation because of
the angry mob on the scene.
“We also gathered that the dead bodies had been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi,” Abbass said.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Pengassan
Estate, one of the adjourning estates in the area, who also was part of
the rescue team, Mr. Imoudu Okpogha, said flooding is a nightmare that
residents of all the estates in Lokogoma have continued to grapple with.
Okpogha told newsmen that flooding menace
has made life unbearable to the residents of Lokogoma estates. He said
the various residents’ associations have cried out to the Federal
Capital Territory Development Authority (FCDA) to provide basic
infrastructure within the area, but their cries never received any
attention.
“We’re calling on the FCT Minister to
come to our aid. In this place, once it begins to rain, we don’t go out
of the area, and if we are outside, we can’t come in; our children
cannot go to school because of the raging flood, coupled with the bad
road.
“During the last Ramadan, some of the
residents were forced to break their fast on the road because there was a
heavy flood that lasted for hours and prevented people from getting to
their homes