Suleja flood 10 persons feared dead.

About ten residents of Suleja, Niger State are missing and feared dead due to the heavy downpour and flood that started in the early hours of Sunday.

The heavy rainfall lasted till about 9:30 a.m on Sunday morning.

There was hardly any community in Suleja that was not affected by the adverse effects of the rain.

But the worst-hit areas included Kaduna road through, Bakin-Iku, Chanchania and Yaro College area, Kantoma area, Kuspa, Angwa Gwari, and Angwa Juma.

Some buildgings collapsed during the heavy downpour, resulting in the death of some residents while many sustained different degree of injuries.

Some residents who tried to leave their submerged homes for safety were swept away by the flood.

Cars and vehicles parked on the water ways were also not spared as they were moved from their original positions.

A resident of Bakin-Iku, Sani Gamko said “Many houses were affected by the flood. Some completely collapsed while only parts of some buildings collapsed. 

“I know of nine persons who were carried away by the flood and likely dead in Bakin-Iku community alone. 

“The local government chairman and some NEMA officials have already visited the community to carry out on the spot assessment,” he added.

At the General Hospital in Suleja, a nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity said that no dead body was brought to the hospital as a result of the rainfall.

Only two injured patients from the rainfall, she said, were brought to the hospital.

According to her, one of them is at the emergency ward.

A Search and Rescue Officer of NEMA, Egrigba Micheal, who spoke to The Nation, said that the agency was able to rescue a victim who has been rushed to the Suleja General Hospital.

He said: “We got a call from our zonal coordinator, Mohammed Idris that there was a flood in Suleja. So we quickly moved to Suleja. We have seen a lot of devastation the rain has caused.

Many of the houses were submerged while some were completely rooted out. Many properties worth millions of naira were also destroyed.

“There was one house that had eight people completely dead although we didn’t see their corpse.

“In a family of eight, only one person was rescued dead. But the other seven are still missing.

 

“We will go back to write our report and submit to our boss. Certainly tomorrow they will come back and do another assessment before there can be any relief. The rain was really devastating,” he said.

Also speaking to The Nation, the Chairman of Suleja Local Government Area, Abdullahi Maje, said that about 10 persons have been declared missing since the flood took place.

He said: “The flood I think started around 12 midnight till this morning and affected more than 100 houses around Suleja local Government Area apart from Tafa local Government Area.

“There are about 10 missing persons within Suleja that the flood took away. Three bodies have been found, we are still searching for the remaining persons dead or alive.

“We have made a call to the Federal government through NEMA. They responded quickly and came to Suleja and also the State management agency came in from Minna this morning,” he said.

Stressing that the rainfall was an act of God, he promised that everything will be done to forestall future damages to lives and properties