Flood claims father, two children in Abuja

Tragedy struck the Lokogoma area of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday as a heavy downpour claimed three lives.

The victims, a father and his son and daughter, were in a car, which was swept away by flood resulting from the early morning rain. An entire stretch of about 20 housing estates was also affected by the flood, destroying properties worth millions of naira.

Officers of the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were seen trying to recover bodies of the deceased. Other residents have also been declared missing.

The incident occurred within a month after similar occurrence took the life of a man in Dei-Dei area, near Kubwa.

Briefing journalist yesterday in Abuja, the Director-General of the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Abbas Idriss, said flooding has become a worrisome development in the FCT, a situation he noted is being seriously looked into by the administration.

Narrating the incident, Idriss said: “As we speak, their bodies have been recovered through the joint efforts of residents in the area, the Civil Defense and the Federal Road Safety Corps, and it has been deposited at Jabi Hospital morgue in the FCT.

“At first, the father of the children was not involved but in his attempt to rescue his daughter and son, he went into the canal and also gave up the ghost.

“The man, who lived in Jabi area, had woken up to take his children to the area where the incident took place for their holiday lessons before he met his untimely death. His Toyota Camry car is yet to be recovered from the flood as we speak, but I can assure you that FEMA has concluded arrangements to investigate the incident properly in the next few days.”

He noted that the flood could not be traced to poor drainage as the area is not regarded as a flash point environment but the canal overfilled its bank due to the heavy downpour.