How Flood Killed Father, Two Children In Lokogoma, Abuja

The FCT Emergency Management Agency, on Thursday confirmed the death of a father and his two children as a result of the flash flood in the Lokogoma area of the FCT, Abuja.

The downpour, which started very early Wednesday night through Thursday morning had flooded the Pengassan Estate, Phase 2 junction.

The tragic incident allegedly happened between the hours of 7am and 9am on Thursday when the man simply identified as Kenneth was conveying his daughter and son (aged 15 and 11years) in a white Honda SUV, to a school for summer lesson.

Their corpse, which was found in the middle of a stream in the area, has been deposited in the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, the Director-General, FEMA, Alhaji Idriss Abass revealed.

He said, “The flood submerged a bridge along the road. The man came with his children and was trying to pass through with his car.

“He was warned and at a point, he reversed. Unfortunately, he zoomed off again and the vehicle was submerged. They were trapped and drowned.

“My team got to the place late the dead bodies of the man and his children had been rescued by some locals.

“We could not carry out further assessment of the situation because of the angry mob on the scene.

“We also gathered that the dead bodies had been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi” Abass said.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Pengassan Estate, one of the adjourning estates in the area, Mr. Imoudu Okpogha, lamented the frequency of flash floods in the area, saying it’s a nightmare that residents have continued to grapple with.

This, he said persists despite cries by the various residents’ associations to the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority (FCDA) to provide basic infrastructure within the area.

“We call on the FCT Minister to come to our aid. In this place once it begins to rain. We don’t go out of the area and if we are outside we can’t come in, our children cannot go to school because of the raging flood, coupled with the bad road.

“During the last Ramadan, some of the residents were forced to braek their fast on the road because there was a heavy flood that lasted for hours and prevented people from getting to their homes.

“As you can see, we don’t have roads to the many estates in this Lokogoma, and this is how we suffer each time the rainy season begins”, he stated.