By Dayo Johnson & Ike Uchechukwu

A retired civil servant, Daniel Utobo, weekend, narrated how his son, Faith, died when a church building collapsed on him during a rainstorm that rendered over 400 people homeless in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

Property worth millions of Naira was reportedly destroyed in Calabar, the Cross River state capital, weekend, as heavy downpour wreaked havoc in major parts of the city.

Aside Faith who died during the less than 30-minute downpour in Akure, six other persons were critically injured in the rainstorm that wrecked havoc in Olu foam, Omoniyi Estate and Igoba areas of the State capital.

Speaking with vanguard, the father of the deceased said “my son went to the church for evening service when the rain started.

“He was inside the church when suddenly the church building collapsed during the rainstorm and he died as a result of the injury sustained.

An eyewitness said that “apart from the death, several houses were destroyed rendering several people homelessness in the rainstorm that lasted less than 30 minutes.

READ ALSO: Heavy rain causes flood, pulls down trees in Calabar

“Also, several electric poles were also destroyed leaving the community in total blackout.

“What worsens the situation is that the roofs of some building were blown off and destroyed other buildings not affected by the storm.

Commenting on the ugly incident, a community leader, Mr Ayeni Abayomi said “What happened yesterday was beyond human knowledge and imagination.

“It started around 6 pm. It was very worst. It destroyed over 80 houses.

“Most of our properties have been destroyed. This is beyond our capacity, we thank God no life was lost but the damage is too much.

Meanwhile, property worth millions of Naira was reportedly destroyed in Calabar, the Cross River state capital, weekend, as heavy downpour wrecked havoc in major parts of the city.

Many houses were blown off in major areas of Calabar South & Municipality, while trees along the major road including Popular Goldie Street, Airport Road, Inyansang, Atimbo, satellite town, Otuansa Street amongst others were destroyed.

The rain which started at about 10:00 pm Saturday came with heavy wind felling trees and blowing off roofs of houses and cash crops like banana, plantains including economic trees and more.

Although no life has been reported lost but a lot of residents was seen yesterday morning trying to scoop water from their apartments while others have already engaged the services of carpenters to carry out remedial work.

One of the victims, Mrs Rose Ekanem Rose, whose roof was completely blown off at Akpa Ndem Street, Inyanhasang, said it was really unfortunate as the roof of her house was completely blown off by the breeze.

“All that rain that fell was on me and my children, we were just standing at the balcony of the shops in front of the major building, till the early hours of this morning (Sunday), then we started scooping out the water and brought out mattresses soaked by water.

Vanguard News Nigeria.