A volcanic windstorm accompanied by heavy downpour has destroyed many houses in Misau town, headquarters of Misau local council, Bauchi State.
The windstorm, WikkiTimes learnt, occured a few minutes after on Sunday.
One of the house owners, Kawu Mamuda whose two rooms were destroyed told WikkiTimes his concern is where his wife and children would pass the night.
“My wife was busy in the kitchen preparing food when the windstorm started, she had to hurriedly put off the fire and look for the children who were playing outside. They were inside the room when they heard a loud sound of the other room collapsing. They horriedly rushed outside drenched waiting for me to arrive home,” he said.
“As the rain started, I have to escort my wife and children to a nearby house to avoid being trapped inside the building. The whole rain ended on me trying to gather things that were scattered around the house,” Kawu added.
According to him his major concern now is where his family will pass the night and how he can repair the house considering the present economic hardship being experienced.
“This calamity that befell us is a test from God, it is Him who can save us from it. I have been struggling to feed my family and yet this happen today. My major concern now is where my family are going to stay because as of now I can’t afford to rebuild the house,” added the 35-year-old Kawu.
Another victim Bello Abubakar said he spent all his savings to build a house but Allah has will it that it would be destroyed by the windstorm.
“Am planning to get married after Sallah and all my life savings were spent on building the house but look at what happened to it now. I consider it as an act of God. The nature of the damage is high, many houses were either destroyed or their roofing blown away,” Abubakar told WikkiTimes.
He appealed to well-doing individuals to come to their aid, noting many victims of the incident can not afford to rebuild their houses.
He added: “Many people can not afford to rebuild or repair their houses, as you can see most of the victims here are poor people. They can’t even afford to have three square meals let alone of building a house now.
“We are appealing to authorities concern to come to our aid.”
Even though there is no official statement yet, locals said over two hundred houses were affected.
Reacting, Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed urged the victims to take it as an act of God while appealing to the people to plant more trees in order to check deforestation.
In a post in his Facebook page, the governor sympathized with the victims, saying: “On behalf of my self, family and the government of Bauchi State, I sympathized with the people of Misau Emirate over the heavy windstorm that oA madadin ni kai na, destroyed many houses and many properties lost”.
“In order to prevent environmental pollution, am calling on the people of Bauchi State to borrow a leaf from our forefathers habit of planting trees and preserve the existing ones.”
