Rainstorm destroys properties worth millions in Ondo

•Residents cry for help
Properties worth millions of naira were destroyed, while many people were rendered homeless by terrible rainstorms in Akure, the capital city of Ondo State.

The incident occurred on Saturday evening during a heavy downpour, affecting residents of Abiodun Aloba Street, off Ondo Road, near Infinity Hotel, Isinkan, Akure.

Meanwhile, the victims had sent a Save our Soul (SoS) message to Ondo State Government, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and State Emergency Management (SEMA) to come to their aid over wanton destruction of their properties.

The residents said the rain, which started normal, grew worse without warning and started blowing off rooftops and destroying anything on its path.  

Speaking to newsmen on the incident, Princess Olamide Ajijo, whose husband’s car parked in their compound was destroyed, recounted how the storm removed and blew off a rooftop of a nearby building and destroy their car.

She said her husband left the house for a meeting with landowners at Oba-Ile to resolve some issues surrounding the land they were erecting their property when the storm wrecked the havoc.

The victim said: “My husband had planned to go to the meeting with the car, but couldn’t due to the lingering fuel scarcity. Everything happened in a jiffy.  

“The storm came suddenly and I was trying to save my children from danger as the whole building was vibrating. There was nothing I could do to move the car to safety, only to come out when the storm subsided and found our only car in ruins.”

Ajijo, who appealed to the Ondo State Government and NEMA to urgently come to their aid, said both the front and back glass screens and the widow glass on top of the car were totally destroyed apart from the body.

“My husband is a civil servant and you all know how things are in Ondo State now, and I am a full time house wife and jobless even though a Master Degree holder in accountancy.

“ That car is the only one the family has, that we are using in the family, especially to take the children to and from school that has been destroyed by this natural disaster. 

“We really need help, hence my appeal to our Talk-and-Do Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) to come to our aid in order to put our only car back on the road as quickly as possible because the hardship will be unbearable.”

Another victim, Mama Victor, who owns a patient medicine store whose roof was blown off, also appealed to the Ondo State Government to come to her rescue as the rain destroyed most of her drugs in stock.
 
According to her, medicine store has been the family’s only source of livelihood for more than ten years that her husband lost his job. She called on the authorities to assist them and assuage the effects of the disaster on the family.