From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure

Four people, including a commercial driver, yesterday, lost their lives in a fatal road accident which occurred along Olokuta-Shasha road in Akure, the Ondo state capital.

Witnesses said the accident occurred when a Sienna bus coming from the Ondo axis of the road had a head-on collision with an Ore-bound Hummer bus.

The four victims were said to have died instantly. It took the intervention of motorists and residents around the area before some other passengers in the vehicles could be rescued.

Men of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in the state later arrived at the scene and moved the bodies of the victims to the mortuary. The accident caused a gridlock on the busy Akure-Ondo road for several hours.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that last week’s flooding which occurred in Lagos claimed seven lives.

The agency’s Zonal Coordinator, South West, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, made the disclosure in a statement in Lagos, yesterday.

“The post-emergency phase assessment after the unprecedented rainfall of Friday, July 8 and Saturday, July 9, 2022 has revealed that about seven people – three children of the same parent and four adults – died.

“About eight lives were also saved during the period, as a result of the flooding that was witnessed during the two-day continuous rainfall,” he said.

Farinloye further stated that the three siblings who lost their lives were residing at a church building belonging to Mercy of Christ Apostolic Church, situated in an uncompleted building.

He said that the siblings, Michael, 18; Elizabeth, 17, and Timi, 14, were swept away while trying to relocate from their room to the main church structure.

He said that the youngest child, Tmi, who was said to be asthmatic, while trying to climb the plank linking their room to the church building, slipped and was overpowered by the flood.

The coordinator added that the remaining two, while trying to rescue their sibling, were also swept away by the flood.

Farinloye said that the NEMA team, while on a condolence visit to the families, met with representatives of Progressive Community Development Area, who conducted the agency around the affected communities.

“The bereaved parents were said to be somewhere, but the NEMA team had a brief meeting with the community leaders on the way forward.

“An appeal was made to them that, for the rest of the year, the community must embark on awareness and sensitisation on safe actions, to avoid the situation that they experienced during the period.

“The community leaders also informed NEMA that in the same community, four siblings were also swept away on the same day, but that the community members rallied round and rescued all of them,” Farinloye said.

He listed the flooded communities as: Oke Isagun, Agbado Oke and Oko LCDA, all in Alimosho LGA.

The NEMA chief said that members of the Progressive CDA briefed NEMA that rainwater from Meiran, Abattoir, Alagbado, Agege and Toll gate converged in their community. Farinloye also gave an update on the flood at Oyatoki in Orile Agege, saying that two people died, while four were rescued.