To prevent further loss of life and property, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has planned evacuation of people from flooded areas in Trademore Estate, located in Lugbe area of Abuja.

The measure followed the disturbing incident of flood on Saturday that submerged 116 buildings in the estate. A lecturer at the University of Abuja allegedly perished in the flood, which took occupants of the estate by surprise. Permanent Secretary, FCTA, Olusade Adesola, who disclosed this during an unscheduled visit to the area, said flooding incident at Trademore Estate was among the issues reviewed at the FCT Monthly Security Committee meeting. Adesola, who led senior FCTA officials and heads of security and paramilitary agencies domiciled in the FCT, on an assessment tour of the affected area, said they were amazed that only two days after the flood, people have returned to some of the properties. He added that FCDA’s Executive Secretary, who chairs the Taskforce on Flood Mitigation in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Commissioner of Police (CP) and other officials of the FCTA, particularly FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Development Control, the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) are now ready to go and evolve solutions that would immediately address the menace. He said: “We just visited Trademore to see the developmental challenges occasioned by the nature of the drainage constructed against water across the roads in the area. We have seen the need to look into this urgently. “We were quite amazed at the level of flooding that occurred there (Trademore Estate). More particularly is the risk that people took – to build in such a low level plain. While on the road, we saw that even the roofs of the houses were below road level, which makes them vulnerable to flooding. “The taskforce will immediately swing to action to make recommendations on urgent issues or attention that must be given to the area, as we cannot fold our hands and allow the destruction to continue. “We were amazed that only two days after the flood, people had returned to some of the properties. So, in a couple of days, we will be taking appropriate action. Having seen the extent of the flooding, we hereby declare the Trademore Estate area a disaster zone that needs immediate action to remedy further damages and loss of life and property. “So, we will look at a programme of evacuating people from those areas, so as to ensure that we prevent the loss of life and property. “For the rest of the year, rain predictions show that there might still be more heavy rains, which means that there could be damages and casualties. And the FCTA will do everything possible within its power to ensure that we mitigate such occurrences.” He therefore urged residents to always exercise restraints in the places where they run to, so that they don’t run into where they would be trapped. Also, the Director-General of FEMA, Dr. Abbas Idriss, said the affected estate was on the water channels, which had made it vulnerable to flooding. Idris stated residents of the estate have experienced the ravaging flooding for the past years and appealed to residents whose houses were built on water channels to relocate. Lamenting on the flood, President, Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), Matthew Obitoye, likened the incident as “yearly water festival.” Obitoye also attributed the flooding to low land that is very close to the water channel, adding that people ought not to build in the water channels.