A lady was swept away by a deadly flood during Friday’s torrential rain in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital.
The ravaging flood swept through the East-West road leaving residents and commuters stranded.
According to Daily Post, the middle-aged lady drowned as a result of the impact of the heavy currents while trekking across the Okobe-Ahoada axis of the East-West Road from Yenagoa to Port Harcourt.
An eye witness who was travelling en route Yenagoa to Port Harcourt said the sad incident happened early Friday morning during the heavy downpour as commuters dropped from their commercial buses to cross by leg to the Ahoada axis of the East-West Road.
He said that “We didn’t notice her until the ravaging floods swept her off her feet as other pedestrians in her company scampered for safety. A few tried pulling her out of the heavy current flowing southwards into the Mangrove creeks, but it was to no avail.
The lady hails from Bayelsa and was a Post Graduate student of the Faculty of Humanities, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, former COE, and was on her way to write her exams scheduled to begin on Friday.
The IAUE is not on strike like other tertiary institutions in Rivers State and post-graduate students have exams and project Thesis defence, hence the need for her to be in school even at the risk of the floods.
Many pedestrians were still stranded at the flood-ravaged Okobe axis of the East-West Road while trucks and drivers of heavy-duty vehicles were making brisk business ferrying passengers across the troubled spots.
Many of the trucks charged as high as three thousand naira from Mbiama to Choba and a thousand naira to cross the troubled one kilometre stretch of the East-West Road which is threatening to cave in as the ravaging flood increased with more deadly currents.