Residents lament as flood hits Abuja community again

The Lokogoma Community in Abuja has been hit by floods, again, following a downpour on Wednesday in the nation’s capital.

Some residents of Efab Estate, one of the estates in the community, woke up to see their homes and some roads ravaged by the floods.

The rain, accompanied by heavy wind, it was learnt, started before 6 a.m.

A resident of the estate, Inya Ode, in a Facebook post shared on Wednesday, raised the alarm as she lamented the recurring flood incidents in the area.

She called on residents who may be leaving for their respective places of work to hold on for the water level to subside.

Ms Ode’s post was accompanied by several pictures of the flooded area and a video of a saloon car stuck in the middle of it.

“Hmmmmmmmmmmmm! Every year, the same issue! All employers should just chill for Lokogoma people today biko… We go late small o!” the resident said in a post seen by this newspaper.

An executive member of the estate’s landlord association, who identified himself as Alhaji Shettima, confirmed the unfortunate development to PREMIUM TIMES.

“It is in our estate, the same Efab Estate, Lokogoma. It is the same issue of poor channelisation of water ways. It is the same problem,” he told this reporter on Wednesday.

PREMIUM TIMES in 2019 reported how residents of estates in Lokogoma suffered heavy losses from flooding.

The June 2019 flood rendered at least seven families homeless while several other properties were destroyed in Efab Estate alone, a development the Abuja authorities ascribed to the estate’s developer.

Since then, the area has been exposed to lighter flood incidents with little or no action from the concerned authorities.

Mr Shettima, against the backdrop of the 2019 incident, told this newspaper Wednesday that the residents are still pleading with the government to help their situation.

“We have pleaded with the government and we are still pleading. These waterways cut across about six estates in Lokogoma. When this thing happened in 2019, you were there when we engaged Development Control. But you know how the government works, unless you know somebody from upstairs for them to do the needful,” he said.

PREMIUM TIMES will provide updates of the flooding in subsequent reports.