A heavy downpour in Abuja yesterday, has led to the flooding of Trademore Estate along the Lugbe-Airport axis in the federal capital territory affecting not less than 166 houses.
The rains which began very little at about 8am, outgrew residents’ expectations when it began to rain heavily nonstop.
According to residents, several losses have been incured owing to the ill-equipped drainage systems to handle the volume of water that came with the rains and rapidly ngulfed the entrance of the estate.
An anonymous victim of the Abuja flood said, he narrowly escaped being carried away by the waves, adding that his car and a batch of bread meant for delivery that morning, could not be salvaged.
“Thank God I can swim. I nearly drowned. There was also someone in front of me who was struggling but I do not know what happened to him. It was after I got to that point that people were able to help me.”
While some residents blamed the government for the perennial flooding in the area, the Director General of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, Dr Abass Idriss, said the government should instead be blamed for not clearing and demolishing the estate earlier, adding that the entire estate sat on a waterway.
FEMA, in a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs, Nkechi Isa, however said no life was lost to the flood.
Isa, revealed that a total of 116 houses were submerged.
The statement also dismissed reports on social media that a resident on the estate went missing in the floods.
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