Friday, March 29, 2024

In Ogun, family’s only child electrocuted on illegal duty

There was pandemonium in Iboko community in Akute area of Ogun State last Thursday, January 5, when a teenager, Taiwo Rahmon, was electrocuted in the process of helping the community to rectify an electricity fault in a transformer. It was gathered that Taiwo, a 17-year-old electrical apprentice, was always called by residents of the area to help fix their power issue whenever there was a problem with supply to the area.

Thus, as usual, on the fateful day, he was called to help restore power to Iboko community with a token amount, when the community suffered power cut. Findings by The Point revealed that Taiwo was offered the sum of N2000, which some of the residents proposed to pay him after the job was done.

Unfortunately, after adjusting what he felt needed to be adjusted in the transformer, he also climbed one of the poles by the transformer to connect a faulty wire. It was in the process that he was electrocuted and fell off the pole to the ground. Speaking with The Point, a resident, Kafayat Adebayo, said, “It was an unfortunate incident.

On the fateful day, all I heard was noise and while trying to find out what happened, I saw a crowd on our street, with people shouting for okada or a vehicle to take him to the hospital.

At first, I thought it was one of the fights that occasionally break out among the youths of the area. But when I moved closer, I discovered it was another issue entirely. “I saw several people trying to carry him, while others were using their cloths to fan him.

Later, they got a bike that helped them to take him to a hospital at Akute, where he was later confirmed dead. It was indeed a sad event. I never expected such to happen to Taiwo. He was one of the few electricians in our community, who people love to call on for repairs of their electrical gadgets because he was very humble.”

Speaking on how Taiwo was electrocuted and fell from the pole, Kafayat explained, “What I gathered from the people was that he was offered a contract of helping to fix a minor electrical issue around the transformer.

It was in the process that he fell down.” Another resident of the community, Saheed Olabi, said, “Taiwo could have made it if the people that were with him during the incident were more active than they were.

At first, when he fell down, they all ran away, thinking that the electric power was still in his body. And in a situation like this, you cannot pour water on him, so as not to aggravate the case. “By the time they got back to drag him out from where he fell, he was already gasping for breath.

At that time, many people started to gather and did all they could before they rushed him to the hospital, but unfortunately we lost him.” Saheed also said that Taiwo, until the incident that took his life, was the only child of his parents.

“He was the only child of his parents. His mother never knew that he was about to help them fix the transformer, because she was at her shop. She later heard the news that her only child was electrocuted and she fainted.”

It was also discovered that the incident has led to several other challenges, which the community is currently facing in the hands of the officials of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and the police.

A member of the community, who doesn’t want her name mentioned, said that following the incident, officials of PHCN servicing the area have thrown the entire community into darkness.

“Since that incident happened, and up till now, PHCN officials have decided not to give us light again. They believe that we were taking laws into our hands by trying to rectify electrical problems on our poles and transformer, without contacting them. Even on the day of the incident, PHCN officials came to the community. But by the time they arrived, the young boy had already been taken to the hospital.

“On their arrival that day, they said they heard that we were rectifying fault on our transformer and someone was electrocuted. But our people denied it. Later, the secret was revealed to them and they decided to cut supply to our community.”

The Point also gathered that the matter later became a police case, as police operatives attached to Ojodu Abiodun Police Station, where the case was reported, besieged the area and effected some arrests.

Another resident of the area, Omilani Tunji, told The Point that “police later came to this area and arrested some people over the case. But when they came, most of the people that were directly involved in the matter had run away from the community.”

Efforts by The Point to hear from the mother of the victim was not successful, as her shop, which is located beside a Baptist Church within the community was closed. Meanwhile, findings by The Point at Martins PHCN business unit, Akute, confirmed the incident.

One of the PHCN officials who pleaded anonymity because he doesn’t have the capacity to address the issue, told The Point that, “We all know their offence in that place and they are currently facing the music. Look at the way they wasted the life of that young boy, all because of their carelessness.

What will it cause them to call on us? Instead of doing so, they resolved to take law into their hands and they wasted the life of the young boy. “Even if the young boy was an electrician, that does not mean he has the technical knowledge and skills to attend to electrical fault on the poles or transformer.

It was so unfortunate, and I pity the parents of the boy, because they are the ones that bore the loss.” Efforts by The Point to speak with the Ogun State Police Command on the matter were unsuccessful, as calls made to the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Opeyemi, were unanswered.

Popular Articles