Heavy Flooding Claim Eight Lives in Ebonyi Community

No fewer than eight persons, mostly women and children have reportedly died of a havoc-wreaking flood at the Enohia Itim community in the Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

According to emergency respondents in the area 5 bodies including women and children were  recovered and buried, while 2 remain missing several days after a torrential rain triggered heavy flooding that swept away victims at farmlands and a boat in the riverian community.

In a statement on Monday, the Public Relations Officer of the Council, Sunday Nkama, stated that the tragic incident occurred at a plantain plantation in the area, claiming eight lives and leaving over 800 farmlands destroyed.

The statement reads, “Confirming the incident, the councilor representing the good people of Itim Ward in Afikpo Legislative Council, Francis Abani Okpani, disclosed that out of the eight people who lost their lives to the flood, three bodies have been recovered while five are still missing and that three children were part of those who lost their lives.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Afikpo Council, Timothy Nwachi, has expressed sadness over the incident and extended condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.

Afikpo Local Government Area, in the southern part of Ebonyi State, is largely an agrarian setting that produces cassava, rice, palm oil, groundnuts, among other farm produce in large quantities.

Kpoghirikpo village, an ancient kingdom in Itim community, surrounded by a beach and mangroves is home to indigenous settlers who are mainly crop farmers and fishermen that largely depend on subsistence practices.

Eyewitness accounts say the casualty figure is high because the farmers attempted to salvage their already matured crops from the low plain farmlands following several days of heavy rainfall, when unexpected floods swept them away.

Recalling that the Federal Ministry of Environment had predicted Afikpo as one of the areas in Nigeria likely to experience flooding, the council chairman implored the people of Afikpo to incorporate climate change projections into flood-risk management plans.

Apparently, the locals had no knowledge about the NiMET flood prediction alert as no communication got to their communities.