Seventeen-year-old Mojisola Masika escaped death on Tuesday when she was nearly electrocuted by electrified rainwater. But her joy was short-lived as she lost her mother, Bola, 56, who was electrocuted in the process of saving her life.
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| Mojisola and her mother Bola |
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 1pm during a heavy rainfall, which snapped an electric cable at Hotel Bus-Stop, along Isheri-Iba Expressway, Lagos. They said the cable had rested on its pole and that Mojisola, who was by the pole, was overcome by electric shock caused by the effect of the detached cable on the rainwater. Bola was a vendor and her wooden kiosk is by the bus-stop with electric cables directly overhead.
Apart from Bola, a commercial motorcyclist, Omoniyi Ajele, 30, was also electrocuted.
Mojisola said tearfully, “My mother died for me. I was in the kiosk when I suddenly felt like I had epilepsy. I had stepped on the rainwater, which had been electrically charged by the cable. I was shaking and I heard my mother shouting for help, and then she held me. It was later in the night that I was told that my mother was electrocuted in the process.
“I’m grateful that I’m alive but I’m not really happy because my mother died while trying to save my life. She was everything to me and had promised to take care of my university education before her death. She worked very hard for us (her children) and had been saving money for my university education since the last 10 months. She was always fasting for us; even at the time of her death, my mother was undergoing a fasting programme. She had also told me to go ahead and find out about the cost of a training I told her about.”
Mojisola, who was planning to study Computer Science at the University of Lagos, said she would miss her mother’s love and support.
The mood at the Masika family residence on Olu Adegoke Street, Isheri-Oshun in Ijegun-Ikotun area of Lagos, was gloomy during our correspondent’s visit two days after the incident. Bola had been buried at the front of the house on Wednesday, a day after the incident and the family was preparing for her eighth day prayers, in accordance with Muslim funeral rites.
But shortly before the incident, Mojisola said the cable had thrown off electric sparks, prompting her mother to contemplate relocating to a new area.
Ironically, Bola moved to Hotel bus-stop form Ejigbo area of Lagos about 12 years ago following an oil pipeline explosion, which had killed a number of persons there.
Her husband, Moshood Masika, said, “After the pipeline explosion at Ejigbo, she decided to leave the area even though she was not affected by it. She wanted a safer place to do her business, but who would have known that she was leaving Ejigbo for another dangerous place. We will miss her because she was a good woman.”
Bola’s first daughter, Iyabo, who burst into tears while speaking with our correspondent, said living without her mother would be “very painful for the family because of her love, care and strength.”
Confirming the story, eyewitnesses said they ran to Bola’s kiosk when they heard her cry for help.
A commercial motorcyclist, Mr. Bashiru Azeez, explained that he and Ajele had run to the kiosk to help Mojisola when they saw Bola fall down.
“But we didn’t know initially that it was electric shock, we thought the two of them were having seizures. So we tried to attend to Mojisola, who was already showing signs of dying. Ajele asked me to quickly get a spoon to put in Mojisola’s mouth, but before I returned, Ajele had also died,” he said.
Azeez said that some soldiers who were passing in a vehicle branded ‘OP MESA’ had assisted in getting Mojisola to the General Hospital, Igando.
“Many of us thought she was dead, only to later hear that she survived the incident,” he added.
Ajele was also been buried on Wednesday in Ondo State, the day he had planned to have his child’s naming ceremony.
Another resident, Olubayo Adeniji, said there had been several complaints made to electricity officials in the past about weak cables in the area, but that they never heard from the officials.
“This is not the first time that we will experience electric sparks in the area; we have complained several times to the officials of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (now IKEDC) but nothing happened,” he said.
On Thursday however, officials from Igando Undertaking Unit, were at the scene of the incident to correct the electrical fault. While work was going on, some community elders had to intervene to stop some aggrieved youths from attacking the officials.
The Assistant General Manager, Public Affairs, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Pekun Adeyanju, said he would need to get in touch with the Business Unit at Ikotun, to know if complaints had been made by residents in the past concerning the electric cables at Hotel Bus-Stop.
He also urged people who live or work under electric cables to relocate because of the risk of electrocution.
He said, “I will need some time to get in touch with our Business Manager at Ikotun Business Unit, but we have written several letters to the Lagos State Government about the situation in many places across the state where people live or have shops under power lines.
“It’s dangerous but we cannot force them to leave these places because we don’t have the power to do so. We often talk to people who are affected by this and they tell us that they don’t have any other alternative.”
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