…From Dele Ogunyemi, Ibadan…
A middle-aged man was killed in a heavy downpour tragedy in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Thursday as he was reportedly washed away in the flood that followed the mid-day rain which fell ceaselessly for almost three hours.
The victim, identified as Ayuba, who in his early twenties was rumoured to have been swept away alongside five others in a canal at Dandaru area of Queen Elizabeth Road, Ibadan.
Eye witness accounts revealed that the deceased, who was said to be sleeping at the bank of the canal with five others before the volume of the rains gathered, was discovered hanging on an object with his legs and hands dangling under the bridge.
Officials of the State Fire Service rushed to the scene following distress calls from members of the public only to pull out the lifeless body of Ayuba with a thick rope tied round his armpits at 5.20 p.m when the volume of the flood had reduced.
An eye witness, Koyejo Akande, who knew Ayuba, told inquisitive newsmen that he knew the deceased prior to the gory incident.
He said: “I usually see him with some boys here washing, fishing and playing. I know him through another friend of mine. His mother had died, but he was staying with his grandmother at Iwo Road. The grandmother is popularly called ‘Alhaja Olounje’ (Canteen operator) at Iwo Road. Unfortunately the friend I know who knows the shop of Alhaja is not here now.”
It could not be ascertained whether the five others sleeping at the bank of the canal were actually swept away in the flood or not.