A heavy rainfall on Thursday night has destroyed goods and property estimated at over N15m at the Gaa-Akanbi and Gaa-Imam areas of Ajase-Ipo Road in Ilorin, Kwara State.

CEO AFRICA correspondent, who visited the affected areas on Friday, confirmed that there were no lives lost to the incident.

However, some of the affected victims, while lamenting their losses, were seen salvaging some of their goods and property from their flooded residential buildings and shops.

The flood, which also pulled down fences and an electricity pole, also cut off the residents from electricity supply. It also forced many drivers to abandon their vehicles on the road as the vehicles stopped because of engine fault, leading to gridlock in the areas.

One of the traders, who identified himself simply as Stanley, said his company lost over N2m worth of goods to the downpour. He, therefore, called on the Kwara State Government to assist them.

He, however, said that the government had yet to fulfil its promise following the 2014 flood disaster in the area.

Another trader, Olayemi Adebayo, said the flood took them by surprise, adding that the goods and property lost in his complex were up to N5m.

Meanwhile, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has directed the permanent secretaries in the Ministry of Works and Environment to inspect the areas affected by the flood.

The governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Muideen Akorede, said the state government was saddened by the disaster and that the ministry had been directed to inspect the affected areas and were expected to give on-the-spot assessment on the damages, the victims and measures to prevent a re-occurrence.

Alhaji Abdulwaheed Adigun, who owns an Engineering company; Adisco Nigeria Limited, along Offa Garage Road  spoke  to CEOafrica reporter Sijuade Gbenga the area started to experience perennial flood disaster since the dualisation of the Challenge-Offa Garage Road.

“The road was in single lane with about six-feet wide and deep drainage on both sides of the road. We were not experiencing this annual flood then. But since government constructed the dual express road, the drainage on both sides of the road was reduced to about three feet. It’s now narrow! So, it cannot contain the volume of water from such areas like Offa Garage, Gaa Akanbi, Omoseebi and the rest. And so we have this flooding.

“Whenever it rains and the drainage is filled up, it spreads to our houses, shops and pulled down our fences, destroyed our roads and other valuable property.

Alhaji Adigun, therefore urged the federal government to come to the aid of the people of the affected areas and end their suffering by taking up the challenge. He said the problem had gone beyond the capacity of the state government since it had not been able to fulfil its pledge at finding lasting solution to the perennial flooding problem.

Also speaking, Mr. Sunday Alabi, a community leader at Omoseebi area of Ilorin metropolis said the concerned authorities should assist the people of the area with the dredging of rivers and streams in the affected areas, adding that this should be complemented with channeling of the rivers.

“We thank the state government for this bridge. But this our bridge at Omoseebi community linking us with other areas of the metropolis is narrow. More especially, it gathers refuse easily making it difficult for water to pass under freely. When refuse block the water flow it spreads to houses nearby. Government should re-channel the river and give us bigger and stronger bridge to contain this flood challenge. At least, we support the government with our votes, they should come to our support too in this our time of need”, he said.

Innocent Ibe, who lives at Royal Shekinah area also said that residents of the area are usually apprehensive and frightened whenever it is about to rain because of usually attendant flooding.

Ibe said that widening of the drainage on both sides of the Offa Garage-Challenge road would solve the perennial problem of flooding in the area.

He cautioned residents to change their attitude of dumping