Seven persons have been reported dead after devastating windstorm hit many villages in Taraba state.
Daily Trust reports that at least 300 houses were destroyed in the natural disaster leaving affected villagers in agony and distress ahead of the EIdul-Fitr celebration.
Abdulhakim Hashim, a resident of one of the affected villages said the windstorm took everyone by surprise as he lost his home in front of which moments earlier he was having a chit-chat with his children.
“I just heard a loud sound, then there was darkness around us in the room. All of us – my three children; a boy Rabiu,7, and two girls, Sharbila 3, and Jummai 5, were in the room when it collapsed and buried us,” he said.
He said his wife, who was in another room, raised an alarm when the room collapsed and neighbours rushed in and removed him and the three children from the rumbles.
“I was brought out from the collapsed building alive but sadly, the two girls were dead and the boy Rabiu was alive with a fracture on his left hand,” Saleem said.
He said Rabiu was taken to Referral Hospital Mutumbiyu and at the hospital, other victims who sustained injuries during the windstorm were also brought from different areas of the town.
From Hashim’s house to a primary school along Garin Magaji ward also in Mutumbiyu, lots of houses were affected by the windstorm and apart from blown off roofs, several rooms and walls collapsed.
Few meters from Garin Magaji Primary school, a room collapsed and killed two boys.
Owner of the house and father of two boys, Yakubu Inuwa, dislosed that the impact of the collapsed building destroyed everything in the room and also killed the two boys – Musa, 4, and Chindo, 5, who were sleeping on the same bed.
He said the rainfall was not heavy when it started but few minute later, a powerful wind came and blew everything away.
Many villagers said, even though windstorm was not alien to them, the latest one took them by surprise and was unprecedented as nothing of such magnitude has been witnessed in recent memory.
A resident, Bello Dauda, appealed to federal and state government to come to the aid of those affected by the calamity by providing social intervention, relief materials and financial assistance to help cushion the effects of the disaster amid soaring inflation and high cost of building materials.
The operations officer in charge of Adamawa and Taraba states of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mr Ladan Ayuba, told Daily Trust that the agency has embarked on assessment tour of areas affected by the windstorm with a view to ascertain the level of destruction and provide relief materials.