Motorists gnash teeth behind wheels as flood paralyses part of Benin

Hundreds of motorists were marooned at Ugbowo on the Lagos-Benin Highway on Wednesday during a heavy downpour that led to flooding of the area.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that many vehicles broke down on the flooded highway while most passengers had to disembark from vehicles to wade through the flood to their destinations.

Commercial vehicles drivers cashed in on the situation to hike fares from as little as N100 to between N400 and N500.

A motorist who identified himself as Godwin Osahon called on the Edo governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, to urgently address the perennial flooding in the area urgently as it has become a threat to lives and property.

“What is responsible for this is that the drainages around here have not been desilted for a long time.

“I thought we had overcome this flooding issue with regular desilting because the drainages are there but they are all blocked. More than two hours after the rain had stopped, the road is still flooded.

“I think the state government is not doing enough. It has abandoned us the masses to our fate and that is not fair,’’ he said.

Another motorist, Benedict Alasan, who also attributed the flooding to none desilting of the drainages, noted that lack of continuity of the storm water project started by the previous administration was responsible for the flood.

According to him, “years before the coming of this administration, we never experienced this kind of flood in Ugbowo.’’