We called LASEMA officials for two days, but no one showed up – Residents
By Henry Okonkwo
Residents of Ijegun community in Lagos are mourning the death
of a man who mysteriously fell from an uncompleted two-storey building
in the area.
The residents said the death of Mr. Ademola Kayode on Tuesday, April
26 was extremely painful because the death could have been averted if
state emergency officials contacted had come to the victim’s aid.
The Fagbile Estate community, Phase 3, Ijegun was thrown into utter
confusion in the afternoon of Sunday, April 24, when Kayode was suddenly
found lying inside a small bush beside an uncompleted building in the
area. Nobody knew who he was, where he came from or how exactly he fell.
There was no on-going work in the uncompleted building at the time.
According to residents, Ademola Kayode was found lying virtually
lifeless in the bush that Sunday. They initially thought he was dead
until they found out that he was breathing. They then carried him out of
the bush into the uncompleted building.
When Daily Sun visited the scene the following day, the man, who
claimed to be 39, was seen lying on a plank inside the uncompleted
structure. He intermittently groaned and writhed in pains. He said he
slept on the first floor of the uncompleted building in the evening of
Friday, April 22. He said he woke up on Saturday morning and
mysteriously found himself in agonizing pain among shrubs on the ground.
He had told the reporter: “I don’t know how I fell. I was sleeping on
the last floor that Friday night, but I woke up and found myself on the
ground on Saturday morning. I lay there crying out for help. But it was
on Sunday that residents saw me and brought me out of the bush into the
uncompleted building. I feel pains all over my back and I cannot move,
sit or stand.”
For three days, Kayode was in the uncompleted building with no proper
attention from anywhere. Residents intermittently fed him with pap, as
they made efforts to get help. They said they had been calling the Lagos
State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) since Sunday afternoon,
regretting that no official of the agency had been there.
“That Sunday, when we realized that he was still alive, many of the
landlords called the emergency number 767 and 112. The officials kept
assuring us that they would come, but since then, and even till now,
nobody has seen them,” a resident blasted on Monday.
The victim had told the reporter that he was from Idoani in Ondo
State. He also disclosed that he was a labourer but did not know where
and how to get any of his relatives in Lagos. As a result, no one could
be contacted to render any assistance, or at least stand in for him at
the hospital.
Why didn’t the people take him to the hospital? “Nobody could take
him to the hospital, because he has no phone, and he doesn’t know how to
contact any of his relatives. We are helpless. We’ve tried calling the
police to help, but they told us it’s not their matter,” another
resident lamented.
Secretary of the Fagbile Estate Phase 3 Community Development
Association (CDA), Mr. A.T Shokuni said Kayode’s fall was mysterious.
On Tuesday, after waiting endlessly for LASEMA officials, some of the
residents took Kayode to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where
he reportedly died shortly after.
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