Residents blame IKEDC officials over electrocution of 70-yr-old man

A chaotic scene played out at Humani Street, Bajulaiye in Shomolu area of Lagos State, when a 70-year-old man who was just returning from a mosque was electrocuted to death.

Reports say the victim identified as AbdulRasheed AbdulQuadri who was just returning from jumat service at the Central Mosque few blocks away from his house touched the iron bar of a mini-goal post (popularly known as monkey post) that was close to an electric pole.

Unknown to him, an electric cable previously disconnect by technicians of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) was lying on the monkey post as it unfortunately electrocuted the man when he touched the iron bar as he tried to step over the open gutter in front of his house.

A resident of the area who witnessed the incident but declined to be named said; “When he fell we rushed to see what was wrong with him. That was when we noticed the electric cable coiled around the monkeypost. At that point we realized that Baba had been electrocuted. And it was dangerous for anyone to go and touch him.”

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Recounting the unfortunate incident, AbdulQuadri, Hafeez Quadri, the grandson of the deceased who was at home when it all happened said; “When I heard people shouting that my granddad had been electrocuted, I rushed and saw him on the ground. I was held back to prevent me from going to touch him. One of the neighbours struck the electric wire with a praying mat, to push it away from the monkey post. It was then we rushed him to the hospital but it was already too late.”

However, the Public Relations Officer of the Ikeja Electric Plc, Felix Ofulue has revealed that his organisation was yet to be informed about the incident.

He said; “We are not aware of such an occurrence. Nobody has raised any issue like that to us. We take issues of safety very seriously. Our team is very proactive and reactive when they need to be. They have their ears to the ground. So, it is not possible that something like that would happen and we would not know about it.”

 

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