The Lagos State Government has apologised to residents and commuters over the flooding that occurred throughout the state following the nine-hour rain that fell on Wednesday, saying it is nature taking its full course on the state.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Environment and Water Resources Tokunbo Wahab gave the apology in an interview on Channels Television on Thursday.
Wahab said, “I will start by saying to Lagosians, ‘We are sorry for the inconvenience caused due to nature’s cause yesterday morning.”
The Wednesday heavy downpour in Lagos left many stranded and many areas and cars submerged.
The torrential rains caused gridlock leaving commuters stranded and halted economic activities in Nigeria’s commercial capital.
Reacting to the development, the commissioner said the floods were not due to the government’s lack of planning.
He said, “It’s not for failure to plan that we had what happened yesterday,” Tokunbo said. “No, it was nature taking its full course. And we are sorry for those whose lives were disrupted: they could not go to work, they could not go to their marketplaces, they couldn’t go to school.”
According to him, the Lagos State Government had prepared for the situation and had early in the day deployed a team to manage the floods.
“Emergency teams were on the ground since around 4 a.m. I’ve been up since around 4 a.m. yesterday,” the commissioner said.
Wahab noted that the impacts of the floods were managed a few hours after, saying, “Nature will take its course. What we have to do is to mitigate the impact of nature on the environment. And that was what we did yesterday.”
