A heavy downpour on Saturday has flooded Ibadan, drowning 15 people in the Oyo State capital city.
10 casualties were recorded at Apete area of the city on Saturday, while another five persons including three children of a woman taking refuge in a C&S church located around Olodo river were said to have been swept away by the raging flood.
A man identified as Fatai Osuolale gave the account of the Olodo incident,saying that the C&S church and some buildings were submerged.
He said rescue team has found one body, but search was still on for the bodies of the victims.
He added that a car was also seen floating on the flood noting that the owner escaped unhurt as he was seen after the flood had subsided trying to remove his car.
Meanwhile, the death of about 10 people at Apete area has triggered street protests by some irate youth who felt that the slow pace of work on the main bridge led to the death of the people.
During the protest, the youths vandalized the work station of the contractor handling the Ijokodo-Apete road and the bridge linking the two communities.
Since the bridge linking Ijokodo community and Apete, Ajibode, Arula, Awotan, Olomo and other communities collapsed during the August 26, 2011 flood disaster, construction work on it has been going on at a snail speed.
The Caretaker Chairman of Ido Local Government, Prof. Joseph Olowofela, who described the incident as unfortunate explained that it was the volume of the flood that thwarted the effort of the council to erect a stronger make-shift bridge there.
“I was here on Friday with the contractor that was to erect the bridge. But we realised that the volume of the water was too much so we decided to wait for it to come down. Unfortunately, heavier rain fell on Saturday which swept away the existing one. We are hearing lots of stories about the incident but we are yet to ascertain how many people were actually involved. Those who were rescued have been taken to a hospital,” he said.
“We have a large number of people here so we will go ahead and construct the bridge. Whatever we do is a palliative measure because the state government through a contractor is already working on a standard bridge that will be completed before the end of this year,” Olowofela added.
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