The recently celebrated Eid- Kabir festival was marred at Utuh street, Araromi Quarters in Ketu Area of Lagos State, after two members of the community were electrocuted in broad day light. The victims, Bashirat Rauf, a mother of two and Sodiq Saka, met their untimely fate under the same circumstance.
Bashirat Rauf was said to had rushed out from her apartment when she saw fire burning from a cable in a nearby school. She reportedly decided to quickly pick her children who were playing outside in order to avoid being caught by the fire when she got electrocuted in the process.
On his part, Sodiq Saka, 33, a plank seller, was said to had gone to fetch water to put off the fire in the school premises when he saw flame coming out of their compound and he got electrocuted in the process.
Crime Alert gathered that the incident occurred at about 5pm on September, 24, 2015, when Muslims worldwide were celebrating Sallah festival.
Death while saving lives
According to Mr. Saka Imam, The father of late Sodiq, “as a Muslim, I have accepted my fate. There is nothing I could do to bring the dead back to life. “We were to gather on that fateful day. He was the one who slaughtered the Sallah ram he bought for me.
After that, he told me he was coming to get something down the street, only for someone to come and call me that my son had been electrocuted in the neighbourhood.
I was told by some witnesses at the scene of the incident that my son only went into the compound of the school premises where it was burning to assist the owner of the house, only for him to be electrocuted by the falling cable. Sodiq was said to had stepped on the naked cable while trying to put off the fire. What else do I do, I cannot give birth to a grown up boy like him.”
How the woman died
The Secretary of Araromi Community Development Association, Mr.Wahab Awoyemi , described the incident as a very sad one for all resident of Araromi community. “It was very sad for us to loose two persons in a day.
The woman was in her apartment that fateful day preparing meal, when information got to her that the school near their apartment was burning. She rushed out to pick her children who were playing outside their compound and stepped on the naked cable. She was electrocuted immediately.
Futile efforts to save victims
“We made serious effort to rescue both of them. We went to Eko distribution company office at mile 12 to switch off the light.
The person who was supposed to switch off the power was said not be on duty. But with providence, they took off the power. It was after then we were able to remove them from the burning cable and took them to a private hospital in the community where they were later pronounced dead by the medical doctor of the hospital.”
Negligence of duty
Awoyemi added: “Before the ugly incident, we called on Eko Disco officials to come fix the cable before it will kill someone in the community. They did not come until two lives were consumed. We want government to come to our aid in the community.
We are suffering. There is no accessible road to our area and when the incident happened, fire-fighters and the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority who were coming to rescue the victims could not easily get to the scene of the incident. Assuming the roads were in good shape, they would have survived.”
At the victim’s home
When Crime Alert visited Bashirat’s house, it was learned that her husband had gone to welcome the deceased mother who travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj programme, while the two children she left behind had been taken to her sister’s house.
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