MILLIONS OF NAIRA WORTH OF GOODS DESTROYED BY FLASH FLOOD IN AWKA

Reporter: UCHE NDEKE

Goods worth millions of naira have been destroyed by flash flood at Land Hostel axis ,  along Okpuno road,  in Awka South local government area of Anambra state. The incident followed a heavy rainfall on Monday night which caused twenty four shops dealing on different items to be flooded.

 Radio Nigeria Correspondent, reported that the people are calling on government to urgently come to their rescue. After the close of business on Monday,  the shop owners went home without any premonition of what was ahead of them. They were forced back to shop as early as five am, not to open for business but to scoop flood water from their shops.

One of them, Mr  Buchi Ndulue narrated that the flood was as a result of blocking  of the drainage channel by the  contractor carrying out palliative work on a failed portion of the road. He regretted that his bridal accessories including wedding gowns , photo albums among others were destroyed.

“I thank God that no life is involved,  my wedding gowns,  chair cover,  all of them affected ,  am begging government to call them to come and open the gutter because if rain fall again ,  our shops will be flooded “

A cement Dealer,  Mr Benjamin Eze  while commending government for the commencement of work on the failed portion of the road, but regretted losing about forty bags of cement to the incident.

“We are happy for the work government is doing ,  even they are buying cement from me,  but we did not know they blocked this place because of the work they did yesterday,  please government should come and help us so that we will be saved. Water entered the entire shops.”

The incident also affected about three tailoring shops as cloths and materials were all flooded as recounted by Miss Chinasa Okafor.

A phone dealer ,  Sandra Ndu who was still trying to salvage her wares when Radio Nigeria visited, appealed to government to come to their rescue as it has become a regular challenge to scoop water from their shops each time there was a rainfall.

“This is what i have been doing every day when it rains,  scooping water from my shop,  this is not fair,  they should come and help us,  we  just came out here to earn a living but we are suffering,  a whole Awka ,  state capital,  it’s not making sense. “

When contacted in a telephone,  one of the representatives of the contractor handling the reconstruction project,  who spoke on anonymity, pleaded with the victims to be patient as plans were on to salvage the situation and complete the ongoing project. The Anambra state government had begun the palliative work reconstruction after several appeals by road users through Radio Nigeria.

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