An early morning downpour that caused havoc in Bajoga town, Funakaye Local Government Area of Gombe State led to the death of a three-year-old child, while his two-year-old sibling was critically injured.
The rain lasted for over five hours at the weekend, leading to the collapse of one of the walls of the room where the two children were sleeping in ‘Unguwar Fada,’ near the Emir’s Palace.
According to the source, the remains of the deceased have been buried according to Islamic rites, saying that the critically injured younger brother was rushed to the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Gombe for treatment.
He further explained that others who sustained various degrees of injuries were also receiving treatment at the General Hospital, Bajoga and other medical facilities.
The source added that the rainfall started at about 5:30 a.m. in the morning and lasted up till 11 a.m., during which several people got injured, while over 100 houses, many livestock and property worth millions of naira were also destroyed, mostly in Shara-Mansur and Bodoriyel areas of the town.
Muhammad Garba, Head of Rescue of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), explained that they were still in Bajoga assessing the situation to ascertain the casualty figures and the actual number of houses, livestock and property destroyed by the flood.
Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, in a statement through his spokesman, Ismaila Uba Misilli, sympathised with the family of the deceased and all those who sustained injuries or lost their property.
The governor directed the State’s Ministry of Environment, SEMA and the local authorities to immediately assess the level of devastation in the affected areas, as well as provide succour to the victims to ameliorate the situation they found themselves.
The governor assured of his administration’s commitment to assist the affected families and urged people of the State to heed flash flood warnings and avoid flood-prone areas as a preventive measure.