Torrential downpour: Ogun government orders flood victims to relocate, threatens to demolish affected buildings

The Ogun State Government on Sunday ordered residents along river channels to relocate with immediate effect, and this followed torrential downpour, which lasted about 16 hours on Saturday, causing monumental havoc in Abeokuta, the State Capital.

Penpushing reports that, Commissioner for Environment, Hon. Abiodun Abudu-Balogun, gave the order while inspecting level of damages caused by flood, emphasing that, failure to relocated will result in pulling down the affected buildings

The Saturday downpour submerged number of houses, shops, vehicles and goods, among others, in areas such as Kuto, Isale-Igbein, Lanfewa, Amolaso, Ijeun-Titun, Ago-Ijesa, Abiola Way, Isale Abetu, Sokori, Igbore, Oke-Mosan, Isale Ake and Adigbe among others.

The Commissioner while speaking with journalists after the assessment visit identified human activities such as indiscriminate dumping of refuse on waterways, as a major factor responsible for the flooding.

Penpushing further reports that, accompanied by his counterpart in the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Tunji Odunlami,  he declared that the state government would take decisive steps to ensure compliance with environmental laws.

“As a government, we are going to take a decisive steps to ensure that residents comply with environmental laws. We are happy that no life was lost yesterday (Saturday). We will ensure that corrections are made to forestall annual recurrence of this natural disaster. We have seen the extent of the damage done by the flooding. We will continue to dredge canals in the state to allow for free passage of water”, he said.

“The effect of human activities, that is building on water ways and indiscriminate dumping of refuse inside stream and rivers are factors responsible for what we are seeing here. We can all see the devastating effect that these have caused.”