It is a sad day for Nigeria’s pioneer indigenous university, University of Nigeria Nsukka, UNN following a flood that left two dead.
The university community was thrown into mourning after flood waters at the university’s gate swept away two people while on an okada.
The yet-to-be-identified corps member was the operator of the commercial motorcycle while the male 100 level student was his passenger.
Bounce News couldn’t verify which course the undergraduate was studying.
But this is not the first time such an incident has happened on that spot as some residents of the area who spoke to Bounce News in Nsukka said there was no year that flood waters do not kill people on that spot.
A photocopy centre operator in the area, who identified himself as Sunday Ogbu, blamed the increased flooding in the area on the poor work by the construction firm.
“My brother, the construction firm dug death traps for Nsukka people and called them gutters. They created a gutter as wide as five feet without covering it.
“The first areas of the gutter are wide, and the middle is small but the one leading through UNN was wide as well so water overflows when it gets to the middle which is a small gutter.
“It covers the roads and the gutters are not covered too. if an Okada rider thinks it’s the road he knows, he will be swept off by the flood and carried into his deat.
According to Mr. Sunday, the flooding got worse after the road was rehabilitated due to the poor state of the drainage.
“Look, my dear, after the road construction, the people of Nsukka were happy that finally succour has come but immediately we saw the irregular and shallow drainage they were doing, we started shouting because they channeled all the water from Enugu Road to this drainage system and still made the gutter very shallow,” he lamented.
Continuing, he said: “We are calling on the state government to revisit this construction and salvage the situation because more deaths will be recorded in this July (which is the peak of rainfall in the area) if not addressed”
Another resident of the area Mrs. Monica Anigbo also noted that this is the second case of death caused by that flood waters in 7 days.
According to her, a little girl was carried away by flood waters on Wednesday and she didn’t survive.
“With the deaths of these two, it’s now 3 persons just this week alone. Is it until all of us are dead that the government will react,” she said.
The remains of the victims have been deposited at a mortuary in Faith Foundation Mission Hospital, Nsukka.
Source: Bounce News
