24th September, 2012
The Nigeria Red Cross Society said on Monday it had recovered three corpses washed ashore River Niger in Lokoja.
It also said that the corpses of two other male adults, swept away on Saturday night by the flood at Ajaokuta Local Government Area of Kogi, had been recovered
The Kogi branch Chairman of the society, Mr Mustafa Allah-Dey said the bodies were recovered late Sunday evening.
He said that all the corpses were male adults and their sources were yet to be ascertained, adding that the attention of the society was drawn to the corpses by local fishermen.
Allah-Dey said the first three corpses might not be from Kogi, adding that they were likely to be among the passengers in a canoe that capsized in a community in Niger two days ago.
Allah-Dey said that the five bodies had since been buried, adding the recent discoveries brought to 11, the number of deaths recorded so far as a result of the flood.
He said that the flood was still devastating some parts of the state, describing the situation in Ibaji and Idah as becoming too precarious.
The chairman said that the situation had forced the National Inland Waterways Authority to release five additional boats for the rescue operations in Ibaji, where hundreds of people were endangered.
He said that the boats, in addition to the three released on Sunday by the organisation, had been deployed to Ibaji, Idah and other flood ravaged communities to rescue the victims.
Allah-Dey said some of the victims, who had taken refuge on tree tops since Saturday, had been brought down and relocated to the four camps in Idah.
Mohammed Garba, the state Sector Commander of the FRSC, said that no movement of vehicle was possible on the Lokoja-Abuja road for now.
“The water level is increasing, no movement for now, what we saw yesterday is not what we are seeing today, no movement is possible on the road now,’’ Garba told NAN.
He said that the FRSC had no idea of when the road would be officially opened to traffic, and urged motorists to make use of alternative routes.
Meanwhile, some motorists have been struggling to find their ways through the road, in spite of the FRSC’s warning to stay off.
At NATAKO junction in Lokoja, passengers simply took commercial motorcycles from the junction to Ukomi community, one of the areas where the water had flooded the road.
On getting to Ukomi, youths making brisk businesses out of the situation, usually ferried the passengers on canoe across to Banda at NI00 per passenger.
At Banda area, another group of youths ferried passengers across at N200 per person to Jamata, where they finally board vehicles going to Abuja, Kaduna, Zaria and other parts of the North.