Girl Electrocuted by Live Wire Dumped by Electricity Workers

A live fire partially disconnected by officials of Eko Electricity Distribution Company has electrocuted a 15-year-old girl, Afusat Musa, on Ishaga Road in Idi-Araba area of Lagos State. About four officials were said to have stormed the neighbourhood penultimate Tuesday, around 2pm, and disconnected wires from houses, whose residents had yet to pay their bills.

The wire cut from a storey building was abandoned on the roof of a mosque near the building, while the other end was still attached to an electric pole. Moments after power was restored on the fateful day, Afusat, a Junior Secondary School three pupil, who lived in a house next to the mosque, was electrocuted. She was said to be returning from an errand at about 7pm and touched the metal pole of an aerial mounted beside her house. She was said to have been rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was confirmed dead on arrival. A brother of the deceased, Aminu Musa, told Punch that the manager of the Idi-Araba office of the EKEDC visited the community after the incident was reported at the Itire Police Station and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency. Aminu added that the manager denied knowledge of the workers’ operation in the area on the fateful day.

He said, “Immediately Afusat died, we went to the Itire Police Station. LASEPA was also informed about the incident. The following day, LASEPA officials, the electricity workers and their manager visited us. The manager denied sending his men to disconnect wires.” The Lagos State police spokesperson, DSP Joe Offor, said efforts were on to get the statements of the workers complicit in the pupil’s death.