Torrential rainfall, which snowballed into flooding, recently ravaged some neighbourhoods in Ikire, town of Irewole Local Government Area of Osun State, causing the damage of properties worth millions of naira. Oluwole Ige examines the factors that triggered the disaster and what can be done to checkmate a reccurence.
THE historical town of Ikire, located on the stretch of Ibadan-Ile-Ife expressway shortly after the popular Asejire Dam, in Irewole Local Government Area of Osun State, had attracted global limelight for decades with its sweet local delicacy, Dodo Ikire, mostly hawked along major highway in the South West.
However, the agrarian community was almost overrun by a terrific flood on Saturday, July 22 as a downpour lasting several hours till Sunday destroyed properties worth millions of naira and displaced sizeable number of its residents, including traders, landlords, tenants and artisans.
Commuters, passengers, commercial vehicles drivers and car owners, mostly from Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Kwara and northern parts of the country that traverse Ibadan-Ile-Ife expressway to connect Abuja and some states in the South South and South East, were not spared while the flooding lasted as they got stuck at the Naira and Kobo junction, where the disaster was more pronounced.
Frantic efforts deployed by commercial bus drivers, private car owners and drivers of articulated vehicles, travelling from Ikirun, Osogbo, Ila Orangun to escape the flooding at Ikire by seeking alternative route to Ibadan via Iwo, were counterproductive as a part of the bridge around Olodo, was washed away by flood.
Though, one section of the expressway, from Naira and Kobo to the popular Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Alasepe, Ikire was sacked by the frenetic water current from Atile River, tributaries from adjoining areas also emptied their contents on the dual carriageway to further aggravate the flood.
Investigation by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that failure to carry out dredging of waterways, lack of drainages on both sides of the expressway, clogging of water channels with waste and refuse, the seeming constructional defect of the intersection at Naira and Kobo junction contributed largely to the destruction and excruciating hardship occasioned by the flood disaster in Ikire.
Similarly, the construction of an expansive building on a particular water channel by one of the landlords near Mateba area also worsened the flooding of Naira and Kobo area.
Neighbourhoods mostly hit by the recurrent flood in Ikire include Mateba, Oluofinrin, Oriolori, Sagba junction, among others.
Though the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) had listed Osun as part of the states in the country susceptible to flood disaster during this year’s rainy season, indigenes and residents of Ikire never had an inkling of being the earliest victims of the foretold disaster.
When our correspondent visited the town on Monday, the water bodies, that had hitherto taken over a section of the expressway have receded, but the scar of its devastating effects was still visible from the damaged properties and other valuables being dried in the sun by the distraught victims.
Besides, the ubiquitous looming danger of incessant flooding ravaging Ikire, particularly houses located along the bank of Atile river are gradually posing a big threat to lives of its occupants as some of the structures are sinking, a development signposting decades of damage to the topography of the areas, including properties near Naira and Kobo.
Some of the residents who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune lamented the yearly tribulations they go through over the flooding of their houses, shops and business premises.
Ayo Akinromade, a 63-year old retiree of the Ministry of Environment, Sanitation and Climate, in Osun State, explained that “water channels capacity we have in Ikire cannot contain the volume of water from tributaries, streams and rivers.”
According to him, “the liquid waste coming from Oriolori area are massive. Dredging of canal that runs from Sagba junction is crucial to prevent flood around this place. But the major cause of the flood disaster every year in Naira and Kobo area can be traced to inadvertent defect that occurred during the dualisation of Ibadan-Ife expressway decades back.
“The construction of the single road from Ibadan to Ife was okay with drainage in strategic spots. But, when they wanted to dualise it, some streams were blocked and failure to extract large quantity of sand deposit in the streams is causing flood every year. The water will always find its way to the road. Also, the slanting of the expressway at this junction due to the terrain is causing flood.
“Another water channel from the Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Ikire campus on the other side of the expressway naturally spills over to the road. The state government should reconstruct the drainages of Atile River and make them wider. That is my father’s house and you can see that it is already sinking despite being a storey building. Most of our tenants have vacated their apartments due to flood when they can no longer cope with annual damage to their properties, “Akinromade, who was the pioneer general manager of Osun State Park and Gardens Management Agency, posited.
Also baring his mind on last Saturday’s flood in Ikire, Mr Fajinmolu Kolawole Waliu, a plank seller at Oke Ada, called on the government to find permanent solution to flood in the town, stressing that “we are helpless in this situation we find ourselves.”
Responding to enquiry from Nigerian Tribune, Shakira Anifaje, who sells liquor drinks beside Osogbo motor park at Ikire, said “all the drinks I kept inside my shop have been swept away by the flood.”
She added: “We are begging Governor Ademola Adeleke to assist us. Right now, I don’t have to anything to sell again. All my drinks have been carried away by the flood. I rely on this business to feed my children. Help us talk to them to help us.”
While the magnitude of the wreckage precipitated by the flood varies with no record of casualty, an Islamic cleric, identified as Keugbemi Olanrewaju, whose three-storey building collapsed the following day (Sunday) after the downpour, said “this sudden collapse of my structure occured yesterday.
“We are planning to construct the roofing on Thursday. I was not around when it collapsed, but I was in town already drenched by the rain. They called me on phone to inform me about it. I was shocked and I fell inside the stream. I was almost drowned and lost my phone in the process.
“This is a big loss to me because I have committed about N56 million to this project. The building project came down around 4:00pm. However, I thank Almighty Allah that there was nobody under it when it caved in.
“I’m appealing to the government and well meaning Nigerians to come to my aid. This is a terrible loss. I want God-sent people to help us. We are asking for offering from kind individuals to assist us. Almighty Allah brought you here.”
When contacted, the Akire of Ikire, Oba Falabi, also sought he state government’s intervention on challenges posed by perennial flood in his domain, saying “it has become rampant and we cannot solve the problem alone.”
Meanwhile, the president of Ikire Progressive Union (IPU), Mr Ademola Akinromade, disclosed that “we have started the process of identifying the victims of this disaster with a view to ensuring that we as a union mitigate the effect in order to assist victims within the limit of our resources.”
While some Nigerians are still conscious of the reality of NIMET warning, stakeholders and community leaders in Ikire are nursing the fear that subsequent rainfalls may pose more deadly threats to the safety of lives and properties in the town unless relevant government authorities take urgent steps to nip in the bud imminent disaster.
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