When 30-year-old Binta woke up in the early hours of Wednesday for Sahur (pre dawn meal), she didn’t envisage that in a few minutes she and her two sons would be dead. Her husband had stepped out of the house around 4am in search of food for his immediate family and the relatives he was harbouring in his house. Due to the country’s economic downturn, Binta’s husband,62-year-old Sadau Adamu, who sold beef in the market had lost his business and had turned to lifting of goods at any vehicle park he had access to.
So, during the Ramadan, it became a pattern to sneak out of the house in search of food for Sahur, whenever he was unable to get the family something tangible for the predawn meal a day before.
But on the 21st of June, shortly after he had left the house, a crashing sound from his home alerted neighbours who were also awake for Sahur. And a few minutes later, members of the entire Farin Ruwa in Rikkos community were awake and digging into the rubble of what remained of Sadau and Binta’s home. An elderly woman, another pregnant woman and a young girl living in the house had been dug out with barely a scratch. But Binta and her two sons were not so lucky. It took several minutes to reach the 30-year-old, her three year-old son Muhammadu Auwal and one year-old Musa. Their lifeless bodies were recovered before Sadau’s eyes.
The cause of the collapsed structure was obvious to everyone in the area. Part of the land to the right of Sadau’s home had been empty for years until the owner decided he needed to put up a structure in an attempt to support the dangerously eroded area behind his plot and Sadau’s home. Above Sadau’s home is an area deeply eaten by gully erosion, but the 62-year-old and his family had lived there for eight years without any fear that the buildings on the edge could someday collapse into his home. Sadau’s defence is that “a poor man usually has few alternatives in terms of owning a home and mostly takes any opportunity that comes his way”.
But the building at the edge of the gully did not give way; instead, the structure put up by Sadau’s neighbour crashed into his home killing his pregnant wife and children.
“My neighbour only erected the structure two months ago in an attempt to support the area behind us because he didn’t want it to collapse into his plot. We all warned him, including other neighbours that the pillars he erected were unstable. They were merely standing on sand, no foundation but he insisted,” he said.
Sadau’s neighbour may have acted badly by putting up a structure without a solid foundation, but he was simply doing what many others were used to.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Tyopev Terna said the command was investigating the incident and that if the said neighbor is found culpable, he would be arrested and charged for negligence and manslaughter.
The Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Alhassan Barde described the incident as unfortunate but said it was caused by heavy down pour.
Barde said individuals must learn to follow building plans and called on all state agencies involved in town planning and safety to ensure that the necessary permits are obtained by individuals. He added that efforts must be made to check construction of weak and unstable structures within the city.
Daily Trust on Sunday observed that even Sadau’s home was poorly constructed, as there was no pillar for support. The area also had no drainage system and based on the woods and other building materials used to construct the house, it was obvious that they were either substandard or had been used and reused.
Many of the houses in the gully part of Rikkos face similar challenges. While the main community is settled above the gully, over 1000 homes including where Sadau’s once stood live in the valley,are surrounded by a deep gully and a river that is said to have claimed many lives. There are various descending entry points from the high level area that meanders to the lower area. The high level area has better structures, better drainage system and a road that links the area to other parts of Jos-north.
To get a taxi, tricycle and other forms of transportation, anyone living in the valley would have to ascend, following the rough path to the main road. Some of the people living in the valley, especially those closer to the river who spoke to Daily Trust on Sunday, said they have seen friends and relatives swept away by tides. Despite a narrow pedestrian bridge popularly called Kaka Mandara, built about 18 years ago to aid movement and reduce frequent loss of lives to the river, many still perish. The community and others with which the river shares boundary suffered a huge loss in 2012, when torrential rain that lasted several hours caused flood that consumed the lives of over 50 persons. More than 200 homes built along water ways in Rikkos and Gangare areas of Jos-north had been submerged in a tragedy that many thought would have served as a lesson to those who live along those areas. Last year also, dozens were rendered temporary homeless following several hours of heavy down pour around Gadan Tukwane in the same Rikkos community Last week, two teenage boys were swept away by the heavy current around the river bank of Rikkos. Instead of walking towards Kaka Mandara Bridge, residents claimed the two teenagers had been victims of a bet, where they were dared to cross the river.
Though, Plateau State is not one of the 26 states predicted by the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA) to experience flooding this year, the memories of 2012 still remain visible in the area. Most residents have since returned and rebuilt their homes. They have not relented; instead, they are more ‘prepared’ as they have now built protective stone fences in between the river and their homes. For Sadau who shares a similar tragedy, rebuilding a home is no longer top on his list as he now lacks the means to even feed his family. He says the remaining members of his family are squatting with friends and relatives. “We have nothing now, most of our belongings have been buried in the rubble,” he said.
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