The Oyo state government, on Thursday, declared that it will seal any bank, company, office, or house whose owners are contributing to the blockage of drainages within Ibadan metropolis.
Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Chief Isacc Ishola disclosed this in Ibadan, the state capital while reacting to the recent flood that ravaged some parts of Ibadan recently declaring it as an artificial one caused by the people who blocked the drainages.
Osun Daily recalls that over thirty houses, a church and hundreds of residents of Oke Ado, Liberty Road, Ring Road and Oke Ayo were affected in a recent flood that ravaged some parts of Ibadan.
Chief Ishola who said he had visited the affected areas to ascertain the causes and level of damages, declared that anyone who is found guilty of blocking the drainages after a warning notice has been given to them on Thursday will have his or her property sealed anytime after tomorrow (Friday).
Ishola, while speaking with journalists at a stakeholders interactive forum on management of public spaces (MOPS) scheme, stated that the ministry as from today, will give banks, houses and companies blocking the drainages in Ibadan to clear all the drainages or risk being sealed or put under lock.
The commissioner who said that the ministry had discovered that some banks, shopping complexes, shops in Mokola, Roundabout, Challenge and Ring Road areas have blocked some drainages, added that they will be sealed if they failed to clear the drainages after tomorrow.
He said, “I have always been saying it that if we want to prevent flood, it takes the cooperation of everybody. But, thank God for the efforts of the government, we don’t have excess water from rivers this time around.
“However, those areas that you see, I have gone round to see, but by the time I got to Mokola, what I saw there, I feel like crying. From Oke Itunu there down to Mokola, all those banks, corporate bodies have sealed up the drainages, and the gutters, so there is no place for the water to pass.
“The flood is caused principally by the blockage of the drainages.
“And like what I told you, from today we are going to serve all those corporate bodies letters and individuals who have done one thing or the other to block the drainages. We will give them just a day notice, let them clear the drainages.
“But, by the time we get there tomorrow, if they did not clear the drainages, we will get them sealed or locked. We will get them sealed up. Now, a committee has been set up to evacuate all the destitute.
Ishola added that the government will not compensate all the victims of the flood except those who have justification for it.
He said, “The government cannot compensate just like that, we have warned them. They are self-created problems. I was at Ring Road that evening, this illegal market they put there is blocking the drainages. We have warned them that if your house is by the road side or drainage side, if the rain continues for 30 minutes, leave the area.
“But, then, we are not saying that the government cannot compensate, but, there must be justification for that compensation otherwise, everybody will just be coming for compensation”.
