There was a palpable fear in Sokoto State as heavy rainfall resulted in flood that disrupted activities in many parts of the town on Saturday.
The rain, which started around 2.00 p.m. and lasted for about three hours, flooded most of the major roads in Sokoto town, such as Emir Yahya, Bello way, Aliyu Jodi, Gobirawa, old market, main market, Mabera and many others.
One of the residents of the affected areas, Abdullahi Musa, who spoke with Sunday Tribune, disclosed that the rain affected their plans for the day.
“This is the heaviest rain I have witnessed this year in Sokoto. Imagine rainfall that lasted more than three hours; that is not common in this part of the country at all.
“Our joy, however, is that such rainfall happened during the day, a development that gave us the opportunity to know how to take charge. Imagine if it was in the middle of the night; there would definitely have been casualties,” he said.
A source told Sunday Tribune that residents of Mabera in Sokoto South Local Government Area were the most affected in the town.
Unconfirmed reports had it that some residents of the area were making use of canoe to move about after the rain stopped.
Meanwhile, a former Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the state governor and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Mallam Yusuf Dingyadi, gave the assurance that Governor Aminu Tambuwal was working on a project to forestall future occurrence of flood.
According to him, “the governor has approved the Mabera road project which is going to include a deep drainage to control flood in the area.
“The issue of flood in Mabera has been there for over 22 years now. When Attahiru Bafarawa was governor, he tried to construct the road in the area, but some residents protested against him, saying it would affect their houses.
“Now, the present governor has approved the project for around N1.5 billion and I believe it will address the situation.”
and then