Collapsing wires electrocutes nine year old boy in Ijora

It was a very sad day for the parents of a 9 year old boy, a day filled with so much sorrow and a day that they will never forget in their lives as their son Micheal Garba was killed by electric shock by a coil of wire at the building front of their house in the Ajeromi white sand area of Ijora, Lagos.

The locale is a muddy place and there are narrow little passage ways, in between houses that connects the deceased family house to the other surroundings.

It was reported that the 9 year old boy went out to play and have some fun with his friends in the morning of that day. Hours later,
he waved his friends goodbye and said that he was going home, On his way back home, the little boy fell on the floor and held onto a naked wire just to prevent him from falling into the mud.

One of the members of the community who saw the boy struggling for his life quickly raised an alarm and called other people in the vicinity to come to the rescue of the boy, but when they got there, it was already late and the boy had died.

One of the neighbours said:

" The boy was on the median when one of his legs slipped, he did not want to fall inside the swamp, so he held onto a wire. Unfortunately, a part of the wire was naked and there was power supply at that time. That is how he was electrocuted"

It was observed that the wire was naked in different places while a plank of wood in which the wire rested was bad.

The deceased father who was very sober said that the death of his son was avoidable as he was already planning to relocate to an environment better than theirs but due to the economic down turn and the financial crises currently facing him and his family, he hasn't been able to relocate.

He said:

"This kind of place is not ideal to live in. But things are not easy for me to afford a good apartment. The little I earn is what I use to feed the family and my two sons. This kind of incident is avoidable if the wires are raised. People pay N500 every month to the persons in charge of the electricity here,  but they have refused to buy more planks to raise the wires. We have informed the Ijora police division and they have promised to do something about it."

 Speaking with the Lagos State Police public relation officer, she said;

"October 16th, at about 10:30 am, electric wire allegedly fell on one Micheal Garba of Ajeromi White sand of Ijora, Badia. The victim got electrocuted and died on the spot. The corpse was taken to a morgue while investigations continues"