TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE, TOLA ADENUBI, DAYO AYEYEMI and LEKAN OLABULO write on a weekend in the aquatic city dripping with anguish.
FOR days, Lagos has been dripping with rain and sorrow. The floods that came with the heavy downpour of last Saturday wreaked havoc and took lives. Earlier report from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said those washed away by the floods were missing but by Tuesday their bodies had been found. Four in all. The details of their unfortunate end were revealed to Saturday Tribune when our reporters visited the area where they met their untimely death.
The morning of Saturday, July 9, was said to be a joyful one for Seyi (surname unknown) and his three friends when they commenced preparation for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
Seyi, popularly known as Last Born (even though he was the second born of his parents), defied the early torrential rain that lasted till evening of that day to buy a ram for his grandmother as a gift for the Ileya celebration.
Seyi, who had just bought an imported fairly used Lexus 350 SUV and yet to get a plate number for it, lived in a rented three-bedroom apartment with his mother at Ajasa-Command, Meiran, in Alimosho Local Government Area while his grandmother lives at Old Oko-Oba in Agege Local Government Area, about 25 minutes’ drive apart.
He was said to have purchased the ram with the hope of delivering it to the old woman before returning home with his friends to celebrate. But he, his friends and the ram never made it to his grandmother’s place; neither did any of them return home alive.
Seyi, who was behind the wheel, according to eyewitnesses, drove the SUV into the flood, perhaps believing the vehicle would deliver them to safety so they could continue to their destination, which is not far from where they were coming from. But the flood was heavier than they thought and its fury was grossly underrated.
Saturday Tribune learnt that while they had the opportunity of jumping to safety, with onlookers reportedly encouraging them to jump out through the open roof, they chose to stay put in the vehicle.
An elderly man who was reportedly given a ride by the four young men, warned them against daring the raging flood, an account, confirmed in the statement put out on the incident by NEMA. When they would not listen, he asked to alight from their vehicle and they obliged him. He lived to tell the story and was said to be the one who broke the news of their sad end to their families.
“Definitely, there is a curse upon them to die because they knew that our area (where the incident happened) very well. They grew up in the area. They could have trekked to buy the ram. They could have waited for the flood to subside. They could have jumped to safety immediately they drove into the street where the flood was,” an artisan who witnessed the tragedy said.
Before any help could come, Seyi and his friends had been washed into the nearby canal at Soretire Street and violently swept away with the car.
“We watched helplessly as they were being swept away by the heavy flood,” an eyewitness who did not want to be named told Saturday Tribune.
The eyewitness explained that in spite of the depth of the canal, which is from the Abbatoir Lairage Complex side, the flood almost covered the vehicle to the roof, making it impossible to offer any help to the occupants.
The video of the moment they were being swept away went viral that same day and trended for days.
“But nobody knew who and how many persons were inside the jeep until the next day when news spread that they were four male adults,” the eyewitness stated.
Their vehicle was later found stuck to the bridge at the nearby Oyatoki Street. When a search was conducted after the flood subsided, two bodies were recovered. Seyi’s body was found on Tuesday, four days after the incident, at the Aboru area of Iyana Ipaja. The body, with wounds, was caught in the weeds inside the canal. The video of the search also went viral. However, the fourth person was yet to be found, dead or alive, as of press time.
When Saturday Tribune visited Seyi’s mother’s shop at Aina Akera Street, Orile Road, Agege, where she sold cooked food, she was said to have abandoned her stall since the incident.
A neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity told one of our reporters that Seyi, in his early 30s, was actually the second born, and not the last born as he was fondly called. He was said to be single and have siblings.
The neighbour further told Saturday Tribune that there was a fifth person, also Seyi’s friend with them in the car at the time Seyi bought the ram but he was dropped off to meet his heavily-pregnant wife in the hospital. “If not for that, he would have died with them,” the neighbour said.
Seyi’s damaged vehicle was sighted by one of our reporters on Thursday at Power Line, Orile Agege, where it was moved to after recovery from the canal.
In a statement, NEMA’s South West coordinator, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, said: “The residents reportedly warned the people in the vehicles to desist from passing through the road but they were adamant. They drove through and they were swept away.
“One of the people in the Toyota got down from the vehicle, the other two drove and they are the only ones missing presently.”
How govt is aiding flooding –Experts
Apart from the blockage of drainage channel with refuse, settlement development experts and conservationists have blamed the intensity of the storm water that ravaged some parts of the state on indiscriminate land reclamation, absence of drainage in many estates and lack of drainage master plan in the state.
Speaking with Saturday Tribune, the experts said once the natural pathway of water is blocked, it must find alternative routes, pointing out that there was no way indiscriminate land reclamation and dredging would not hurt Lagos, being a city below the sea level.
A former chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Lagos State chapter, Mr Bisi Adedire, said indiscriminate land reclamation and lack of drainage master plan were part of problems causing flood in Lagos.
He stated that the Ilubirin housing project, Eko Atlantic City and estates in Lekki, Ijedodo and Ijegun are on reclaimed land.
Other man-made estates in Lagos include Green Field Island, King City Islands, off north of Victoria Garden City (VGC), Ostia Island, FBT Coral Estate and Amuwo- Odofin Waterfront Scheme.
Besides, he identified the alleged bad attitude of residents, who are in the habit of blocking the drainage channels with refuse, as a major challenge causing flooding when it rains in the metropolis.
“Until we have attitudinal change, things may get worse. Drainage blockage is a major challenge,” he said.
He also identified the encroachment of drainage channel by home builders, developers and hawkers as another challenge causing flood whenever it rains heavily in the Lagos metropolis.
He said: “The state government is talking about smart city. Do they carry out drainage master plan of the entire state first? We need to identify factors responsible for the flooding of the city before we can provide solutions. We need proper drainage master plan for Lagos.
“Do the agencies of government have synergies about layout plans approved or permit granted? They don’t.”
Adedire pointed out that there are some places where roads were constructed without proper drainage.
“The government said people must build vertically, that is, they must increase building’s density without consideration to increase drainage channels. Water from these houses flow to the roads,” he said.
Wrong reclamation?
Findings by Saturday Tribune also showed that the wetland adorning Ojota-Oworonshoki Expressway at Alapere/Estate Bus Stop has been reclaimed for the construction of a modern residential estate.
Also, there is an ongoing effort to reclaim the wetland at Ogudu/Ifako area on the expressway.
Dissecting the cause of the ravaging flood, Managing Director, MOA Planners Limited, Moses Ogunleye, said that apart from land reclamation, most estates in Lagos State are poorly drained.
According to him, while some have drainage, many are without drainage, thereby channeling their storm water to the roads directly.
In some estates with drainage approval by the state authorities, he alleged that there was no programme for implementation, meaning that storm and waste water are still discharged on the roads.
“There are primary, secondary and tertiary drainages. Estates are to have tertiary and secondary drains, but are they discharging properly in the drainage? If you buy an estate that the drainage is not properly discharged, it is a problem. Estates in Oko-Oba were flooded because of poor drainage.
“Implementation is poor, some even reduced the capacity of the drainage because there is no enforcement and lack of commitment by the developer,” Ogunleye claimed.
The renowned town planner also stated that the topography of Lagos equally counted during flooding, noting that the topography of Abule-egba is high, reason all storm water from there goes to Oko- Oba.
In locations such as Lekki axis, he said the topography is generally flat, hence the need for more design and maintenance of the drainage, adding that Lagos state has a master plan for drainage but poor implementation and lack of maintenance are the main challenges.
Also, Project Manager, Lekki Conservation Center (LCC), Mr Adedamola Ogunsesan, stated that all over the world, flood has been a challenge, adding that mitigation and solution are problems in Nigeria.
According to him, everybody knew that July is the peak of rains and that there would be flooding but nobody is thinking of the solution.’
Ogunsesan identified Osborne, Ilubirin and other reclaimed land in Lagos for estates as wetlands.
Wetlands, he said, served the main purpose of flood abatement, but have now been sandfilled for real estate purposes.
He listed poor waste management, conversion of wetlands to residential buildings and nonchalant attitude of people as major contributors to flooding.
The conservationist pointed out that it is possible to generate electricity through the flood water if it is properly harvested.
“The flood water is a resource. It can be used to generate electricity. The water can also be recycled for other purposes,” he said.
Another challenge he identified was lack of flood-risk plan in the state.
Ogunsesan said: “Lagos does not have flood-risk plan to map all flood-prone areas by putting it on a cadastral map to know houses that are vulnerable so that it can deploy disaster managers.”
As part of the solutions, he urged that drainages in Lagos should not be static, but the state government should develop new strategies to expand the drainage to collect more water.
This, he said, requires total re-engineering of the drainage system in Lagos.
He also suggested conservation strategy, saying there should be green buffers across major roads in Lagos where storm water, could go to.
In order to reduce housing deficits and expand opportunities, Lagos State government recently said it was going to create five more man-made islands aside from the Eko Atlantic City to open up the city.
The Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Ahmed Kabiru Abdullahi, disclosed that the ministry had obtained approval for preparatory work to commence the creation of six new waterfront schemes.
The schemes include Idogun in Ibeju- Lekki Council, Lepia also in Ibeju-Lekki Council, Alayande-Sangotedo in Eti-Osa Council and Owode – Apa in Badagry Council. Others are Akodo in Ibeju-Lekki Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and Ibeshe in Ikorodu Council.
Abdullahi said that the state government would continue to work on its ongoing manmade estates.
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