Blood, tears trail Lagos, Ogun floods •6 drown, many missing, as rain enters second day •Passengers stranded, vehicles desert roads •Over 200 people displaced in Ibadan

MORE casualties were recorded in Lagos and Ogun states on Monday, as the downpour which began on Sunday morning entered the second day. An unspecified number of persons were said to be missing after the flood which ravaged parts of the cities.

Elsewhere, one woman reportedly drowned while paddling her canoe on a river at Ayetoro, a boundary town between Ogun and Lagos states, while two persons were feared washed away by flood at Alabede canal at Iyana-Ipaja.

An eyewitness told the Nigerian Tribune that thousands of stranded workers watched with frustration, as the woman, who was said to be alone in the canoe at Ayetoro, struggled vainly as her canoe capsized, following the phenomenal rise in the water level as a result of flooding.

Attempts by some stranded male commuters to rescue her came too late, as the river washed her  away and pushed the canoe dangling offshore.

According to an eyewitness, Mrs Idowu Abimbola, many onlookers broke down in tears as they watched the woman battle with death. Many of the commuters thereafter had to seek alternative route on the Abeokuta-Lagos Expressway at Sango Ota to find their way to the Lagos metropolis, where they worked.
A young man, who had reportedly taken refuge in a church at Aboru, following severe flooding, narrowly escaped death through the help of some passers-by who used a ladder to bring him out of the place after breaking the roof of the building.

He had screamed for help when the flood overran the premises of the church.

Our correspondents said some residents of Ikola, Ipaja and Aboru communities also claimed that no fewer than five persons were feared drowned and several missing, following severe flooding in the areas.

The rains, which started in the communities at about 9.00 a.m. on Sunday, saw some buildings almost submerged by water, while their occupants hurriedly moved some of their belongings out of the endangered zone.

”I know this area is flood-prone, but I have never witnessed such a volume of water since I moved here in 1999,” explained Mrs Ola Grace, a resident of Akinola Street at Aboru.

Two people holding on to each other for support in the flood on Akinola bridge were swept away by the water.

Another resident of the area, Kayode Ikuomola, claimed that a motorcyclist and his two female passengers  drowned in the canal at Pleasure Bus Stop, while trying to navigate through the flood.

Two freshly recovered bodies were seen at Ikola and Alabede, when one of our correspondents visited the affected areas on Monday, while search parties had been organised for many that were still unaccounted for.

People had to provide ladders after breaking into the roofs of buildings at Aboru for trapped occupants to escape from houses that were almost submerged by the flood.(Nigerian Tribune)

Too bad, the effect of this flood was really devastating, and the irony of it is that in my area here in Kogi, we are still expecting rainfall when it is already wrecking havoc in another state. Anyway God knows best though...good morning@all, how was your night?