The disaster, which struck last week, submerged homes, destroyed farmlands, and displaced hundreds of residents.
Mohammed Abdullahi, a recent graduate of Civil Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, and his cousin, Fatima Zahra Nma, are among the more than 150 people killed in the recent flood that devastated Mokwa community in Niger State.
The disaster, which struck last week, submerged homes, destroyed farmlands, and displaced hundreds of residents.
SaharaReporters gathered that Abdullahi had just completed his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in January 2025 under the 2024 Batch A, Stream 1 in Kaduna State. He had returned home to begin the next phase of his life when the tragedy occurred.
His body was discovered around 10 pm on Saturday, days after the flood swept through the area.
“Mohammed Abdullahi was a young, brilliant civil engineering graduate from ABU Zaria and a son of Mokwa, whose life was tragically taken by the recent flood disaster that struck the community,” a source told SaharaReporters.
“While Zahra was a student of the School of Health Technology, Minna, who recently returned to Mokwa for her Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES).”
SaharaReporters reported on Saturday that the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed the death toll had reached 151. However, by Monday, it was gathered that the number had risen to 153.
Entire neighbourhoods in Mokwa remain submerged, with many families still searching for missing loved ones as emergency responders struggle to cope with the scale of the disaster.
SaharaReporters reported on Saturday that some victims of the disaster claimed the devastating incident was not caused by rainfall, but rather a suspected release of water from the Kainji Dam.
Residents who spoke to SaharaReporters on Friday in Mokwa said the flood, which struck in the early hours of May 29, 2025, came without any heavy rainfall the night before, leading many to believe it was not a natural disaster.
Several locals also noted that in the days leading up to the flood, parts of New Bussa town in Borgu LGA of Niger State experienced partial flooding, and some farmers in Mokwa observed rising water levels across their farmlands but did not expect the devastating scale that followed.
One of the victims, AbdulGafar, who lost everything he had worked for in the flood, insisted that the water’s arrival was sudden and unnatural.
“I believe the flood is not as a result of rainfall. If it was rain, it would have affected us in the middle of the night or the flood could have come at midnight. It is terrible that we are witnessing this thing in our lives,” he said.
He further explained that while the community had experienced severe erosion in the past, this disaster was unlike anything they had ever faced before.
“We’ve not had it this bad. We’ve been experiencing erosion, a serious one of that,” he said.
“But this is the worst we’ve ever experienced. And I can categorically say that this is not rain but water, which we can actually link to the Kainji Dam because it was a heavy flood that came,” he said.
Another victim, Salihu Suleiman, who also lost all his properties and investments, also emphasised that no heavy rainfall preceded the flood.
Suleiman said, “This flood is not from rainwater because there was not that heavy downpour a day before the devastating incident.
He said, “Around 6 am, I and my wife woke up to pray subh prayer (morning prayer) to prayed and went back to sleep and 4 to 5 minutes, later my mum came knocking at the door.
“She was shouting, ‘Come out, tell your wife to come out.’ And I rushed out; she was like, ‘Water is coming. I should call my wife.’ And I called her. We ran out and did not pick anything. I came out with only my singlet and boxers, without picking anything, not even my phone.”
Leave a Reply