Fear grips Trademore Estate residents over flash flood of “terror”

• …Two feared dead

By Stanley Onyekwere

Many residents at Trademore Estate, Lugbe, along the Airport road, Abuja are now living in fears, following yesterday’s  morning downpour, resulting to flash flood that submerged  houses, vehicles and other items in the area.

Also, unconfirmed reports disclosed  that two lives were destroyed by the devastating floods at the Estate.

Several cries for help from residents were heard on the background of  a viral video  circulating on social media, where a female voice was heard calling on the FCT minister Nyesom Wike and the Federal government to come to the aid of the residents.

It was observed that the video captured real time situation where  some home electrical appliances floating on the massive water forcing it way into homes of the residents.

Recall that the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) predicted thundery and rainy weather conditions from Sunday to Tuesday (today) across the country.

In the NiMet`s weather outlook released  at the weekend in Abuja, forecasted morning thunderstorms over the central states in places like; Plateau, Nasarawa, the Federal Capital Territory, Benue and Niger states during the morning hours. Also later in the day, there are prospects of thunderstorms over parts of Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa and the Federal Capital Territory.

Also, FCT Administration’s bid to mitigate the seemingly recurring devastating flash flood of terror,  was halted by a court injunction instituted by the Association of Residents of Trademore.

Meanwhile, reacting to the latest flood incident, the FCT Emergency Department,(FEMD) in a statement by its Head, Public Affairs, Nkechi Isa disclosed that after an assessment of affected areas at the Estate, the houses submerged  were part of  the 116 structures marked for demolition in 2023 when the place was declared a disaster zone.

According to the statement, structures earlier demolished by the Department of Development Control were been rebuilt or renovated by the owners.

It read in part: “ We did not receive any distress call from Trade More. We saw the viral video and we went there to carryout an assessment.

“A primary school with about 500 pupils, management and staff is  also sitting on the water channel, as a disaster waiting to happen.

“We activated NEMA, FCT Fire Service, Department of Development Control and Department of Engineering Services.”

FEMD however, advised the owners of Trademore to provide all needed infrastructure to avert a reoccurrence of flash floods that may lead to loss of lives at the Estate.