Mudslide wreaks havoc in Lagos

A mudslide occurred in Lagos yesterday, as torrential rains continued to ravage the metropolis. A woman, who reportedly got married two weeks ago, died in the incident that occurred in Agidingbi, Ikeja, the state capital.
The rain, which started between Sunday night and Monday morning, lasted almost the whole of yesterday, with the attendant flooding ravaging many parts. The house at No 2, Alhaji Amao Street, off Ogudu Road, Ojota, experienced partial collapse on Monday.  But there were no casualties, it was gathered.
A major casualty of the downpour was the Kuata Area, by Amara Olu Street, Mechanic Village, Agidingbi, Ikeja where a mudslide occurred in the area dotted by illegal shanties.  Mr. Michael Akindele, General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), said his agency’s emergency response team rescued two persons -a male and a female – that were trapped underneath the earth. He said the body of a female was recovered and deposited at the morgue.
Daily Sun learnt that the victim, Fausa Muhammed, died 10 days after her wedding.

The LASEMA boss said: “The Commissioner, Ministry of the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, the Commandant, Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, Lagos State Command, Mr. Tajudeen Balogun, men of the Nigerian Police from Alausa Division, RRS and the Nigerian security and civil defence, LASAMBUS and NEMA, worked together at the scene of the mudslide for full recovery operation. The area is a wet land and a buffer zone which is not habitable for human settlement.”
With many people trapped in their homes by the rain, the attendant flood unleashed untold hardship on commuters, motorists and other residents. Several roads were covered by floodwater, making it difficult for motorists to navigate their ways. Gridlock was also experienced in several parts of Lagos, with motorists forced to park and wait for the flood to recede.
Areas affected by flood
Akinremi Street in Anifowose, Ikeja area was terribly flooded. The downpour sacked most of the shop owners and they could be seen standing around, waiting for the flood to recede so as to open their shops for business. Residents of the streets, whose houses were also submerged, watched helplessly.
At Allen junction, the flood caused a gridlock, and vehicles coming from Opebi, Awolowo Way and Adeniji Jones were on a standstill for hours.
A passenger in one of the commercial buses, Mr. Niyi Alaba, disclosed to Daily Sun that he had been trapped in the gridlock for hours.
“When I got to Allen junction this morning, I had to hold my shoes in my hands and walk in the flood to meet up with an assignment that I needed to attend. It was really bad and the rain was not ready to stop,” he said.
The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, precisely the by-pass leading to Omole Phase 2 Estate, got its bitter share. In another direction, motorists going towards Berger Bus Stop through the expressway had to make use of alternative routes to get to their destinations.
A resident of Amuwo-Odofin area, Alfred Chukwudi said many houses in the area were almost submerged. The situation was not different in some parts of Ijesha, Surulere and Dolphin Estate in Ikoyi.
It was reliably gathered that commuters spent several hours on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. The sections of the road between Volks and Barracks bus stops, which are dotted by potholes, were covered by flood, a scenario which propelled vehicles to slow down in order to avoid bumping into the bad spots. As the impatient drivers competed for the manageable space on the road, it increased the traffic.
Another commuter, Mr. Balogun Ola told the reporters that Ikorodu Road was flooded from Ojota, Maryland, Anthony to Palm Grove. According to him, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane along the axis could best pass for an erosion gully. The median separating the lane from the expressway was entirely covered by water.
Lily Okorafor, who lives at Ajegunle, said the unending downpour succeeded in unleashing terror on most parts of the community.  Houses were submerged and valuable property destroyed, she noted.
She said: “The flood here at Akperi Street, down to Isikalo area is too much. The house on No 6, Idowu Street, down to Akere end, has been covered by water since Monday.”
It was gathered that the velocity at which water was gushing into many houses forced the occupants to flee for safety. Household items were floating on the water, she said.
“As of Monday night, people were already using pumping machine to evacuate pools of water from their compounds. This is already 1pm today (Tuesday), and I have not been able to move out from my house. My street is flooded and there is no tricycle to get out of the area.”
Umbrella and shower cap sellers smile
But for some others, the rains brought a boom to their businesses. At almost every bus stop, sellers of umbrellas and shower caps for women made brisk business. The umbrellas were sold for between N100 and N600, while the shower caps were hawked for N50.
On both sides of the busy bus stop at Ikeja Bus Stop, along the Agege Motor Road, women conspicuously displayed the products, hailing customers. It was the same at Oshodi. Children below 12 were also seen in the rain marketing the products, including shabbily made nylon-wears.
Sudden change
A couple of weeks back, many residents of Lagos had thought the city was under the siege of drought. Then came a sudden dramatic change in early September. The heavens suddenly opened up and the rains began to fall torrentially.
Penultimate week, the rains resumed with an incredible fury. When the downpour started in the evening of Saturday, August 27, many Lagos residents dismissed it with a wave of the hand. They said it was one of those showers that would abate in no time. But as they woke up Sunday morning to the sounds of heavy raindrops still pelting hard against their roofs, they knew they were in for a bitter experience.
It was a harvest of agonising experiences for residents in several parts of the state. The flood took over homes, churches and major roads. The rainwater also inundated waterways and major canals across the metropolis.
Areas like Ijede, Igbogbo and Majidun, among other communities in Ikorodu, were submerged. Also submerged were communities in Ajegunle, Apapa, Gbagada, Lekki, Oworonshoki, Shogunle, Ifako, Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki. Not only were several families rendered homeless, property worth millions were also destroyed.
Most of the residents who lamented their ordeal, told Daily Sun that their prayer at the moment was for the state government to come to their rescue, as they have lost so much to the deluge and have nowhere to relocate.
After the deluge penultimate week, the state government urged residents not to panic over the heavy rain, assuring that necessary steps have been taken to avert flood disaster.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who spoke through the Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, said his administration had in recent times carried out intensive tour of some flood prone communities to clear blocked drainages and waterways.
The governor, who lamented the indiscriminate dumping of refuse on waterways and drainages created, said campaigns against such practice by the government were in the interest of the residents.
He warned that the government would no longer tolerate the building of illegal structures on waterways in the state, which he said had caused a lot of environmental disasters.
He said the government had demolished illegal structures and shanties on waterways, especially in flood-prone areas. He also stressed the need for residents living on wetlands and flood-prone areas to be careful.
Also speaking on the flooding incident experienced in the state, Commissioner for Special Duties and Inter-governmental Relations, Seye Oladejo, said the state was not taken unawares by the flooding, adding that several steps had been taken to mitigate the effect of flood as earlier forecast by the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet).
“We have engaged the people on the need to keep waterways and drainages that run through their areas clean from dirt. We have also enlightened them on the dangers of building on water channels. This is even as the state has gone a notch further to clear canals, drainages and waterways of obstructions. We thank God that no life was lost but people should not shy away from their responsibilities,” Oladejo said
He noted that even though some of the flooding incidents were self-inflicted, government would not relent to empathise with the people while carrying out its constitutional responsibilities of ensuring safety of lives and property.
Director General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, while reiterating calls for precautionary measures to be taken to avert flooding fatalities, also urged stakeholders to take necessary actions in line with their various mandates.
He stressed that the states and local governments were to ensure observance with the flood threat in order to avert imminent loss of lives and property that might certainly arise in the event of flooding.
He also urged the states to utilize the flood vulnerability maps given to them earlier by NEMA to identify safer grounds for temporary shelters in time of evacuation.