By  Gbenga AKINWUNMI, Abeokuta
No fewer than three bridges and two houses collapsed in Abeokuta yesterday following a heavy downpour that lasted over two hours in Abeokuta on Thursday evening.

The bridges include the Oke-igbehin, near the government house, Ibara Housing Estate in Abeokuta South Local Government and Oke-sokori in Abeokuta , all in the Business district of the capital city, Ibara.

The two collapsed buildings are located very close to the Odo-Gbangba River in Ijeun- titun, also in Abeokuta south local government.

Other properties involved are the Fence of the house of Chief Earnest

Sonekan, Former Head of Interim Government, and some other properties. Also involved, are The External Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Olomowewe, Sokori  and three other buildings close to the River were sacked by the heavy flood. a taxi marked Ogun, XA 996 MEK was also sunk at the ever-busy Oke-sokori bridge.

It will be recalled that majority of the places that were affected by the flood had been affected in the flood which occurred in 2007.

At the scene of the incident were Commissioners of Environment,  Dr. Adeleke Adedoyin, the Commissioner for Water Resources, Mr. Kola  Onadipe and the Abeokuta South Local Government, Mr. Yanju Lipede, who sympathized with the  victims of the  natural disaster.

Adedoyin, while speaking  with journalists urged the Federal Government to come to the aid to the victims adding that it would not be out of place to declare the town a disaster area.

“If I had my way I will ask the Governor to declare this Abeokuta a disaster area. It is so terrible and the infrastructures have been highly damaged, you can see all the failures of this culvert and bridges. Honestly we need a lot of money to repair these.

Unfortunately, the state government has not gotten enough money to fix these. It is highly unfortunate that similar things happened three years ago.

“This one is even worse than what we saw three years ago and I said, from all indications the state government has not gotten enough money to fix this. We will appeal to the Federal Government even though this type of project requires emergency funding.”

Corroborating him, Lipede added that “today is Friday,  I am sure the House is not going to sit and even if governor sends in a slow request, they will not be able to pass it before Monday. We should pray that it will not rain again otherwise it will compound what we have at hand.