Freestyle Writing _ Tragedy in Aba (The collapse of a Billboard)

Hello friends,

It is another great opportunity to write once again in this community. But this time, my choice of free-style writing is coming with a little mixed feelings. This was actually a tragedy and recent happening within my state.

On the 28th day of May 2025, a few minutes passed through the hour of four (4), this very incident happened and dashed the hopes of many while it left the affected families in a state of dilemma. It can only be imagined as a storyline. So painful...

In my state, just like most other states in the country, the tricycle has remained the major means of commercial transportation ( especially for short trips), and we all know that it is partly covered which makes it difficult to shade one from intense rainfall impacts while in it.

On this occasion, it was raining so hard that many tricycles quickly made their way to a nearby shade that would help them wait until the rain subsided. A situation that saw several tricycles and their passengers hibernating in the closest shade around this Billboard.

This looked like a well-planned tragedy, as everything happened in a so much coordinated manner. It rained, people sought shade, and they all stayed in a particular area that brought them their ugly end.

There was this giant billboard that I had crossed several years of my route through this road. It happened that this gigantic billboard collapsed on this fateful day. It collapsed at a time when it was raining heavily and as well when people were gathered around it.

This was the foundation of the beem laid for this billboard. One would wonder how such a magnificent billboard be poorly rooted in such a shallow depth. This was the beginning of this problem. The engineers who supervised this project poorly executed this hence the damages therein.

When the foundation could no longer carry the weight of the above, it had to collapse. The problem here is the loss of lives this brought to its victims. More than 24 hours since this tragedy happened, we are yet to see sanctions and who's taking responsibility for this madness. An unfortunate place...

The fall of this billboard was a disaster as the damage it created was beyond human expectation. This is typical of the saying, do not allow Nigeria to happen to you, as nothing would be done. May the souls of fallen heroes of this day rest in peace.