Flood cuts off Jonathan’s home town, Otuoke

Flood has cut off the link road between Onuebum and Otuoke, home town of former President Goodluck Jonathan, in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. The road which links Azikoro-Agbura-Onuebum-Otuoke is the shortest route to Ogbia town for Bayelsans residing around the Ekeki surbub to Ovom, Yenagoa, the state capital. Otuoke is host to the Federal University of Technology with a large student population and mixture of non-indigenes doing business in the fast growing community. Only haulage trucks could pass through the submerged portion of the road due to the volume of water. Motorists, especially commercial vehicles, plying the route through the Azikoro axis are now forced to go through the Elebele-Emeyal flank. When Vanguard visited the area, yesterday, it noticed that several car owners made u turn on getting to the flooded portion of the road for fear of being swept off by the flood. Also, restaurant operators and palm wine sellers along the route have been displaced by the surging flood. A driver who simply identified himself as Dadiowei told Vanguard that they had since abandoned the Azikoro- Agbura-Onuebum-Otuoke route because of the deplorable state of the route and the velocity of the flood. “It will be a suicide mission for a small vehicle to go through the flood. There are so many craters on the submerged road that could prove fatal for somebody not conversant with the road. I almost lost control of my car on Monday when I drove through the flooded portion,” he said.