A university undergraduate was carried away by a flood in Asaba, Delta State, while she was travelling with her father, and her body was found two days afterward.
The incident took place on Monday at Okotimi Layout, behind the Asaba Specialist Hospital, after a heavy downpour.
It was gathered that the girl was riding with her father in a Toyota Corolla when the flood forced the vehicle into a drainage channel.
A source stated that the man was driving his daughter to the place where she was doing her industrial training when the incident happened.
“He was driving to a place where the daughter was doing her industrial attachment. As he was driving, the road was flooded, and the water was pushing the vehicle into the drain,” the source said.
The source stated the girl, who was sitting in the front of the vehicle, raised her hand and called for help before she was swept away by the floodwater.
Fortunately, her father was rescued and taken to a hospital for treatment.
The Delta State Emergency Management Agency, operating under the Ministry of Bureau for Special Duties, has confirmed the incident.
The Commissioner for the Bureau of Special Duties, Ejiro Terry Etacherure, stated that SEMA began searching for the girl on Monday and brought in divers to help with the operation.
According to him, the search went on until Wednesday, when boat operators along the Otogwu River axis of Anwai Road noticed a floating body and alerted the agency.
“The State Emergency Management Agency intervened in the search for the girl. We looked for divers, and they had been searching for her since Monday until this morning when boat riders at Otogwu River in Anwai Road called SEMA,” Etacherure said.
The commissioner stated that a family member had been reached to identify the body and added that an ambulance from Asaba Specialist Hospital transported the remains to the hospital morgue.
At the same time, residents noted that this was not the first occasion on which vehicles had been washed into the drainage channel amid heavy rainfall.
A witness, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that vehicles, among them a Mercedes-Benz GLK and a Lexus, had fallen into the canal before.
“The last one that fell inside is the Corolla, which involved the death of a young girl. This is not the first incident because vehicles usually fall into the canal back to back,” the eyewitness said.
The eyewitness blamed the recurring incidents on inadequate drainage, saying the existing channel could not contain the volume and force of floodwater during heavy rainfall.
“It is the drainage because there is none good there. You cannot expect a small drainage for a flood. Things don’t work like that,” he said.
The deceased’s uncle, Andy Emephia, who confirmed the family’s bereavement, called for urgent attention to the drainage problem affecting the state.
“We are bereaved now. My brother will be more scattered if he sees these questions. Why not draw your publication from the angle of the drainage that is not properly covered? That’s the main issue,” he said.
As a result, residents have appealed for immediate action to upgrade the drainage system and avert additional loss of lives and property when heavy rains occur.
