The people of Olubodun community, Ipaja in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State have been thrown into mourning as a rampaging flood swept two men into a canal in the area.
The men, simply identified as Alfa and a Mallam, were residents of Ajayi Street in the neighbourhood.
An eyewitness claimed that the flood, which rose over 1.3m, came with a lot of garbage, including bundles of grass and surrounded houses in the area, especially Alfa’s bungalow located at the end of the street.
The source explained that Alfa, an animal farmer, had moved members of his family and animals away from his house and asked for assistance to push away the floating heaps of grass left by the flood at his doorsteps.
It was further gathered that three residents assisted him but two withdrew at a point, while Alfa and the third resident insisted on pushing the mountain of grasses further and that the two who withdrew had hardly left the vicinity when they looked back and saw Alfa and fellow resident struggling with the ravaging flood, which eventually swept them away.
Local divers who reportedly mobilized to rescue them returned with the body of the resident after about three hours.
The divers explained that they saw him holding to a tree and covered by the flood about two kilometres away from the scene of the incident while Alfa’s body remained missing.
The neighbours described flood in the area as an annual occurrence, saying this year’s event was aggravated by a developer who tried to reclaim land from the canal in the area but started building houses on the reclaimed land without completing the project.
They maintained that until the canal was dredged, the area would always be flooded and called on the Lagos State government to do the needful and prevent further loss of lives in the area.
Officials of the Lagos State Emergency Agency could not be reached for their comment over the incident at the time of filing this report.
