Mother, daughter drown in Anambra State

      

Palpable grief enveloped Umudara village, Ihite, in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State after Mrs. Afugwobi and her daughter, Edith were drowned in the flooded community.
Daily Sun gathered that the incident happened Mrs. Afugwobi and her daughter, Edith, an SS3 student of First Foundation Secondary School, Ihiala went to harvest their cassava when the canoe they rode in capsized.


According to an eyewitness, as the deceased were returning home after harvesting some cassava they were able to salvage, their boat capsized and they were unable to swim to safety. Speaking on the incident, the Proprietor of First Foundation Secondary School, Ihiala, Mr. Nduka Onyemueze said the community especially those at the riverine areas had been completely submerged and neglected by both individuals and the state government.

Onyemueze further lamented that the devastating effects of the flood, which, he said, apart from resulting in the death of his student and her mother had also brought untold hardship to the community. “It pains us that the state and Federal Government and even individuals have forgotten everything about us. They forgot that Ihiala, especially the food producing villages comprising Umudara, Umuduru, Umuezeawala, Umuedike and Amaduru have been seriously submerged and no help has come from anywhere.

Apart from the recent devastation and injuries caused by this flood when it took the lives of mother and daughter who unfortunately was my student, we have been faced with challenges of confronting the invasion of water animals, like dangerous snakes and other reptiles” he said. He therefore called on government to come to their aid, adding “as the food basket of the entire council area and indeed the state in general, Ihite Ihiala and the villages that make up Ihite have a common boundary with Ogwaniocha in Ogbaru council area which made us more vulnerable than other communities” Onyemueze also lamented the possible outbreak of epidemic, stressing that their only source of drinking water has been polluted by the flood and urged good spirited individuals to assist in providing succour to the displaced persons in the community.

Also speaking, a community leader in the area, Mr. Akaolisa Basil narrated how a middle-aged man attempted suicide after losing all his farms to the flood and regretted that the condition of the people of Ihite Ihiala called for proper attention. “

As we are talking, we just saved a man who borrowed money from the bank to cultivate several hectares of land with yam but all of them have been swept away, he attempted to take his own life but for prompt intervention of his neigbours, he was saved and everything in our community have been completely destroyed” Akaolisa further called for assistance, insisting that the villages had lost everything including their farmlands which he said distinguished them from other villages in the state and pleaded for help to assist them regain their farmlands.

Meanwhile, a philanthropist and indigene of the area, Dr. Obinna Uzoh through a telephone interview regretted the death of the woman and her daughter and promised to return to the village to access the level of damage in the area and possible way of helping them. Dr. Uzoh further sympathized with the family of the deceased and the entire villages affected by the flood and urged them to remain resolute, on the ground that he would assist them regain their farmlands when the flood recedes. However, the Anambra state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ralph Uzoigwe said he was yet to be furnished with details of the death of the woman and her daughter. Ends