Posted by By GODWIN TSA, Abuja on
The Ajegunle community in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government area of Lagos was thrown into mourning on Monday following the tragic death of a 66-year-old father and his two sons who drowned in a well.
The Ajegunle community in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government area of Lagos was thrown into mourning on Monday following the tragic death of a 66-year-old father and his two sons who drowned in a well.
Elo Oliboku, a native of Isoko in Delta State, was said to be preparing to wet the concrete (German) floor of a house he was developing on Adebomoye Street, Tolu area with the assistance of his sons, Elomena, 28 and Akpofure, 25.
Eyewitness said Oliboku instructed Akpofure to fetch water from a well he dug at the site. But the devil struck as the lad fell into it.
Oliboku's first son, Elomena was said to have been shocked and in a desperate move to rescue his brother also dived into the well and died with him.
Oliboku, Daily Sun gathered, screamed and this attracted a crowd of neighbours to the scene.
The people tried to console him and made efforts to take him away from the scene.
But, he reportedly broke free of their restraining hands and plunged into the well, arguing that he could not live without the boys.
A source at the scene of the incident quoted Oliboku as saying: 'What will people say now. They will think I have used my children for rituals so that I will have money to build this upstairs."
The three bodies were later recovered and taken to the mortuary.
The only surviving son, Elojona, who claimed that he had just finished his studies at the Nigeria Technical School, Lagos, said some people had attributed the tragedy to witchcraft, adding that his dad had the intention of erecting a two-storey building.
According to him, 'We don't have money now to bury them. Dad wanted to do the German floor gradually so that he would be building the two-storey building little by little. All the money in the house has been spent on building the house."
He appealed for public financial assistance in defraying the cost of preserving the bodies pending burial, saying: 'The mortuary attendant said the fee for keeping each body is N45,000. People should help us."