New Telegraph

Rainstorm wreaks havoc in Ondo community

Property worth millions of naira have been destroyed following a torrential rainfall in Ipogun Community, in the Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State. The incident is coming barely 24 hours after the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) predicted that the country would witness normal rainfall earlier than the long-term average rainfall in 2023.

The downpour, accompanied by a heavy storm, damaged several houses, shops, church buildings, electric poles, and schools, including a part of the community health center among others, leaving most of the residents homeless. The Deeper Life Bible Church in the community was mostly hit as the rainstorm destroyed the iron roofing sheet and ceilings. Some of the affected victims revealed that rainstorms which started normal, grew worse, without any warning and began blowing off rooftops and destroying anything in their path. According to them, the heavy downpour was the third rainfall in the community in the last four days and the heaviest in decades coming with snowdrops. One of the victims, Ms. Adeola Ajayi lamented the destruction done by the heavy down pour on her goods and solicited the state government’s assistance. Ajayi said, “The rain destroyed my shop and goods. It was just too heavy as we could not salvage wo hours. Over 200 houses were destroyed by the rain. So, we are begging Mr. Governor (Rotimi Akeredolu) and other philanthropists to assist us.”

A resident of the community, simply identified as Kolawole who lost his aged father’s properties to the rainfall also called on the state government to assist them with relief materials. His words, “I was called by other residents that my father’s house had been destroyed by the rain. It’s painful because it blew off the roof and the most annoying thing is that building materials are now expensive. I will appreciate it if the government can assist us too.” Other victims who spoke also sent a Save our Soul (SoS) message to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management (SEMA) to come to their aid over the destruction of their properties. Decrying the situation during his assessmentof thedamagesdone to the properties, the Chairman of theAllProgressivesCongress(APC) in the LGA, Mr. Tunde Fawoyi called on both the state and federal lawmakers representing Ifedore to urgently come to their rescue. Reacting to the incident, the traditionalrulerof thecommunity, the Adapogun of Ipogun, Oba Raphael Oluwadare Ojo described the incident as the most pathetic in history. Oba Ojo said the rainfall was the worst ever in recent years in the community and called on the relevant agencies of the State and Federal Governments for urgent assistance.

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