Rainstorm Wreaks Havoc In Ilorin, Two Dead

About three people including two children have drowned after a heavy downpour in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. The rain started at about 11pm on … Continue reading Rainstorm Wreaks Havoc In Ilorin, Two Dead


rainstormAbout three people including two children have drowned after a heavy downpour in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

The rain started at about 11pm on Wednesday and lasted for about four hours.

The impact was only discovered in the morning when most of the streets around Offa Garage area were blocked with trees and about 25 vehicles which were parked within the garages and parking lots of their owners had been washed into the main roads, thereby causing several hours of gridlocks.

The flood also cut off a large chunk of soil from beneath the rail track of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, cutting through the road thereby making it impassable for the train.

A section of the rail track behind Kingdom Heritage Secondary School was also affected.

Consequently no fewer than 1000 passengers on a train travelling from Lagos to the northern part of the country were stranded.

Properties worth several millions of Naira were destroyed, and the residents put the blame of the flooding on the doorstep of the management of a hotel in the area, whom they accused of obstructing the drainage by constructing a culvert in front of the hotel.

The resulting flooding of several apartments was responsible for the death of two boys who were in Ilorin to spend the holiday with their grandmother.

Many neighbours could not control their emotions as the bodies of the two boys named Basit and Gafar were brought out from their apartment, with people consoling their father, who just arrived from another state.

The State Commissioner of Environment, Abubakar Mora, who arrived the scene early, after inspecting the damages, gave assurances of the government’s readiness to find a lasting solution to the yearly flooding especially as it affects the construction of culvert by the hotelier.