Flood has killed an 11-year-old boy and an attempted rescuer in the Aboru/Iyana-Ipaja, Alimisho area of Lagos State on Saturday.
The incident occurred on Ige Road, when two boys sent by their parents to buy cooking gas at a gas station in the area fell into a drainage that serves as a channel to a canal.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), three men who tried to help the boys rescued the older one, but one of the rescuers, popularly known as Wasiu Stubborn, was swept away while trying to rescue the other victim.
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Solomon Agboghoroma, a Community Development Association leader in Oki Town, who spoke to NAN, blamed the tragedy on government for failing to construct a bridge to prevent such happenings.
Agboghoroma, who narrated the incident, recounted the ordeal of landlords and residents of the area anytime it rained.
He noted the urgent need to expand Aboru road, as well as build a bridge at Cement Bud Stop to forestall recurrence of such tragedy.
“This rain started almost four or five days ago but the one of last night was one of the heaviest and it started at about 2:15 a.m. and by 3:15 a.m., it came with full force and everywhere was flooded,” he said.
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“Around 7:30 a.m. or 8:00 a.m., we learnt that an OPC member, who was a security guard in one of the gas stations here had been carried away by flood while trying to rescue two children who came to buy gas, but fell into the drain.
“The gas station had not opened because of the flood as the whole place including the canal had overflowed its banks.
“The children fell inside the gutter. This OPC boy went and rescued one but in the process of rescuing the second child, he and the boy fell into the canal and that was the end.”
He said landlords in the area have made efforts to dredge the canal, but help has not been forthcoming from the state government, despite promises.
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“People have been dying in situation like this here and all landlords have tried, including raising almost N4 million for dredging of the canal.
“The government knows what to do when it is ready because this canal contract was award sometime in 2011 or 2012. When we taxed ourselves, Fashola came and commended us and promised palliative measures and government takeover.
“The government should come and do the bridge as against this culvert that is here. This flat culvert cannot contain water. The government should widen this road and ensure the canal is dug for the peace and safety of residents,” he added.
Suleiman Adedokun, an eyewitness, who owns a shop beside the canal, stated that the rescuer entered the canal to help the boy.
“Wasiu Stubborn entered the drain to rescue the boy but the flood swept both of them away into the canal.
“Wasiu tried, succeeded in catching the second boy but his effort to come out of the drain proved futile as it was not easy for him due to the force of the water.
“It is the bad road and narrow culvert that caused these deaths because these two children that fell inside the drain didn’t know it was there as water covered everywhere,” Adedokun said.
An officer of the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps (LSNC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency got the information around 9:00 am, that flood swept away one Wasiu, a.k.a, stubborn, while trying to rescue two children.
He said that the LSNC had informed relevant agencies of government about the incident.
“We are trying to locate the parents of the children and also to contact the family of Wasiu,” the LNSC officer said.
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