A popular Islamic cleric in Kwara State, Sheikh Abdulganiyu Nuraini, popularly called Alfa Gani Aboto, and two of his students, Alfa Azeez Omoekun and Alfa Nurudeen, were on Saturday killed in flood waters.

It was gathered on Sunday that the corpses of the victims and the car were recovered when the water subsided.

The sheik and his students, it was gathered, were coming from da’awah activity in Minna, Niger State, when the flood swept away his Toyota Yaris car while trying to cross a bridge near Harmony Estate/Kukende at the Akerebiata area of Ilorin.

The late sheik was a student of late Sheikh Kamaldeen Al-Adabiy, the first Mufti of Ilorin and founder of Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria. He was also a hafeedh and leading trainer of Quran memorisers in the state.

His corpse was transported to his hometown in Aboto, Asa LGA of the state on Sunday after a janazah in Ilorin.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Zuku Gambari, among other prominent personalities in the state, have expressed shock over the incident and sympathised with his family and that of the other casualties of the flood incident.

The flood, resulting from a downpour, destroyed bridges, business premises and submerged many public and residential buildings in the state, killing many others in the process.

A resident told City & Crime that a woman at the Pakata area of Ilorin West LGA was killed when a mud wall collapsed, and that four children sustained injuries when the wall of a building caved in at Kankatu-Okelele area of Ilorin.

It was further learnt that earlier, two youths swimming in the Asa River at the Amilengbe axis of Ilorin metropolis drowned.