A heavy downpour on Tuesday that lasted till the early hour of Wednesday has ravaged a section of the Ado Ekiti capital city and cut off certain parts of the metropolis from the main city.
Mainly affected is the Ureje area, along Polytechnic road and other adjoining communities like Boom Town, Eminrin and Ijelu village, fondly called Aba Oyinbo by commuters.
The torrential rainfall started around 8pm on Tuesday and fell intermittently throughout the night until 6am on Wednesday.
A resident of the area, Mr Idowu Adaramoye, said the bridge on Ado-Ijan-Ikare road, which also linked the capital city to the Federal Polytechnic region was overrun by the flood.
He said commuters travelling along that route between that six hours had to parked their vehicles at the nearby filling stations and waited until it subsided.
The source said the flood also surged into a church and about five houses located within the vicinity of Ureje Bridge.
“Nobody could cross that bridge to the Polytechnic side or go into Ado Ekiti city. Most of the residents had to wake up and caught a glimpse of the ravaging fast-moving water”.
Also, residents of the Boom Town, Eminrin, had to stay indoors till 12 noon before they could cross Ureje stream that devastated their environment.
The Chairman of the community, Mr. Oladimeji, appealed to government to dredge the stream to lower the water to prevent recurrence of the flooding.
“This Ureje stream was dredged about three years ago, but the job was not well done and the effect is what we are feeling today.
“About four houses could have been destroyed but for communal efforts made to ensure that we concrete the same inner Ureje bridge that linked us with Oke Ila region.
“There is need for the government to do more thorough job to dredge in order to reduce the water level,” he said.
Residents of Ikere Ekiti also felt a dose of the devastation as the flood rendered many homeless while property worth millions of Naira was destroyed by the flood.
The affected areas in Ekiti are: Kajola Adun Ogbon in Oke Osun, Alade filling Station Area in Odo Oja.
Journalists who visited the area observed that many houses, livestock gardens and cars were lost.
