Shocking: Heavy Flood Sweeps Away Van Containing Drugs Worth Millions In Delta

According to a New Telegraph report, flood at the weekend swept off a van containing drugs believed to worth millions of naira on Marble-Hill Road at Okpanam in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State.

The drugs were meant to be delivered to some pharmaceutical stores within Asaba metropolis.

The vehicle was swept into a gully.

This came after flood had earlier killed four people, among them an 18-year-old girl, Oghenekioja Okporie, at Igbide community in Isoko South Local Government Area of the state.

It also rendered thousands of residents homeless across seven local government areas and killed a 60-year-old blind man as well as 11-year-old boy at Power-Line District, Asaba in Oshimili South Local Government Area and Okpai in Ndokwa East Local Government Area.

To take care of those affected by the flood, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had set up over seven Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps across the state with a charge on public-spirited individuals, captains of industries, corporate organisations and clubs to assist the victims with relief materials.

Meanwhile, the incident involving the van of a pharmaceutical company came barely 24 hours after the Chief Rescue Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in charge of Delta and Anambra states, Mr. Walson Brandon, said besides the woman who gave birth to a baby girl recently at Ogbe-Afgor Camp in Asaba, 10 other women were on expectant list.

A resident of the area, who identified herself simply as Mama Chinyere, said the van was parked on the road before the rain started.

She said: “It was a downpour. The man parked the vehicle on the road. We were shocked after the rains subsided and we found out that the van with drugs worth millions of naira had been swept into the borrow-pit.”

Mama Chinyere added that the van was newly purchased for N18 million by the distributor, whose names she refused to disclose.

Another resident of the area, Ogbuefi Emeka Mbadunuju, who lamented the dangers that gullies dug by flood have constituted to lives and property in the locality, called on the state government to direct the Ministry of Environment to capture the area in its 2019 budget.

The driver of the van could not be reached to speak on the incident.