Rain in most parts of Adamawa State caused flooding in communities on Monday morning, running over homes, schools and roads.
A major highway, the Yola-Mubi road, was affected, as vehicles could not get from Yola to Song, Gombi, Hong and the other towns and communities northwards, including Mubi, Maiha, Michika and Madagali.
The flood ran over a long section of the road between Girei and Jabi Lamba in the Girei local government area, making it impossible for any vehicle to pass either towards Mubi or towards Yola.
Our correspondent, who got to the scene of the flood just before 9am, found that some passengers and other road users had been stranded for about three hours, waiting and hoping that the flood would recede soon enough for them to pass through.
It rained around Yola and likely many other parts of the State off and on much of the earlier hours of Monday, and over the trip from Yola to the portion where the flood cut off the highway near Jabi Lamba, some houses, shops and schools visible from the highway were noticed to have been flooded.
Resumption of schools, which was scheduled for Monday in Adamawa State, would be as affected as travelling and other pursuits in many parts of the state.
Executives of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and some other members of the union who had embarked on a trip to northern Adamawa on the fateful Monday morning, were among those whose plans were disrupted.
The NUJ officials and some reporters who had left Yola for a tour of government projects in the northern Adamawa zone, had to return to Yola after a long time of waiting at the flooded portion of the highway with little hope that the flood would abate soon enough.
Adamawa NUJ chairman, Comrade Ishaka Dedan, who spoke on the incident, said the trip to the northern zone of the State had to be postponed because of the flood.
According to him: “Our mission as NUJ is to check on what the government says it has done in line with our mandate to hold government and corporate organisations accountable on what they promise or owe as a responsibility to the people in the 21 LGAs.
“We had wanted to start today from the northern zone, but unfortunately flood blocked the road connecting Yola with the northern zone. We have to now restrategise and possibly head to the southern zone tomorrow.”
In view of how the flood had affected travellers and other Adamawa people, including students whose resumption for first term has been disrupted due to flooding of some schools, the NUJ chairman called for quick intervention.
He said: “I appeal to government at all levels, especially the federal government because its a federal road, but we can’t fold our arms waiting for the federal government. Government and all concerned need to see what they must do to bring succour to the people.