By Tunbosun Ogundare
TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE, TOLA ADENUBI, DAYO AYEYEMI and LEKAN OLABULO write on a weekend in the aquatic city dripping with anguish.
FOR days, Lagos has been dripping with rain and sorrow. The floods that came with the heavy downpour of last Saturday wreaked havoc and took lives. Earlier report from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said those washed away by the floods were missing but by Tuesday their bodies had been found. Four in all. The details of their unfortunate end were revealed to Saturday Tribune when our reporters visited the area where they met their untimely death.
The morning of Saturday, July 9, was said to be a joyful one for Seyi (surname unknown) and his three friends when they commenced preparation for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration.
Seyi, popularly known as Last Born (even though he was the second born of his parents), defied the early torrential rain that lasted till evening of that day to buy a ram for his grandmother as a gift for the Ileya celebration.
Seyi, who had just bought an imported fairly used Lexus 350 SUV and yet to get a plate number for it, lived in a rented three-bedroom apartment with his mother at Ajasa-Command, Meiran, in Alimosho Local Government Area while his grandmother lives at Old Oko-Oba in Agege Local Government Area, about 25 minutes’ drive apart.
He was said to have purchased the ram with the hope of delivering it to the old woman before returning home with his friends to celebrate. But he, his friends and the ram never made it to his grandmother’s place; neither did any of them return home alive.
Seyi, who was behind the wheel, according to eyewitnesses, drove the SUV into the flood, perhaps believing the vehicle would deliver them to safety so they could continue to their destination, which is not far from where they were coming from. But the flood was heavier than they thought and its fury was grossly underrated.
Saturday Tribune learnt that while they had the opportunity of jumping to safety, with onlookers reportedly encouraging them to jump out through the open roof, they chose to stay put in the vehicle.
An elderly man who was reportedly given a ride by the four young men, warned them against daring the raging flood, an account, confirmed in the statement put out on the incident by NEMA. When they would not listen, he asked to alight from their vehicle and they obliged him. He lived to tell the story and was said to be the one who broke the news of their sad end to their families.
“Definitely, there is a curse upon them to die because they knew that our area (where the incident happened) very well. They grew up in the area. They could have trekked to buy the ram. They could have waited for the flood to subside. They could have jumped to safety immediately they drove into the street where the flood was,” an artisan who witnessed the tragedy said.
Before any help could come, Seyi and his friends had been washed into the nearby canal at Soretire Street and violently swept away with the car.
“We watched helplessly as they were being swept away by the heavy flood,” an eyewitness who did not want to be named told Saturday Tribune.
The eyewitness explained that in spite of the depth…
