Father, 2 sons drown in
well
By GODWIN TSA, Abuja
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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.”
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