The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Tuesday condoled with the family of a seven-year-old, Olamide Ayeni, who drowned in the flood caused by heavy rainfall in Ado-Ekiti on Sunday night.
The seven-year-old boy was said to have been sent on an errand with his elder sister, Faith, but missed his step and fell into a heavily flooded drain while returning home in the rain that lasted for over six hours.
Condoling with the family, Fayemi described the incident as pathetic, noting that having lost his deputy, he knew the pains Olamide’s parents were going through.
He said: “The loss of any of our children gives one a lot of pains.
“This is a very young kid, seven-years-old, an innocent person who has a good future ahead and now we have lost him to an avoidable tragedy like this.
“It was a terrible loss.
“Having lost an older person, my deputy, I know the pain the parents must have felt for losing this child.
“It is a loss to the family and to the state.”
While assuring the family that government would not relent in its duties of making the environment safe for every resident, the governor urged adults and parents to do everything that would guarantee the safety of their children and wards, adding that the child may have been rescued if an adult were to be at the scene of the tragic incident.
He said: “I will advice all of us, especially the adults, to always do everything to guarantee the safety of our children and from what the parents described to me, it could have happened to any child.
“The drainage was overflown with water and the kid did not know that the place was a drain because water was already full at the time.
“We must do everything to protect our children.
“Government will do its duties and ensure that proper drainages are put in place.
“Incidentally, this is an area where we have just done the road unlike before when there was no drain at all, it would have been worse.”
Fayemi prayed to God for the repose of the soul of the child as well as grant the parents the fortitude to bear the loss.
As at the time of the governor’s visit to Olamide’s family, his body was yet to be found.
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