Tragedy struck in Okesa area of Ado-Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State when a 15 year old boy, Junior Abia died of electric shock while listening to music on his mobile phone through his earpiece, as the mobile phone was said to be connected to the wall socket while charging.
Junior’s elder brother, Chibuzor ran into the room as soon as he heard him scream for help. As soon as he got into the room to discover that his brother was lying on the floor, he looked for a stick so he could remove the earpiece from Junior’s ears.
The Sun reports that when Chibuzor could not remove the earpiece from his brother’s ears, he alerted the neighbours who immediately moved into action to rescue him. The mobile phone was eventually disconnected from the power socket, while Junior was quickly taken to the hospital within the area. Unfortunately, he died just before the rescue team could get to the hospital premises.
Recounting how the incident happened to the Sun, mother of the teenager, Mama Chibuzor who could not hold back tears from her eyes said:
“Junior had assisted me in cooking some rice for sale in my stand at Okesa market before I left home. But it was hardly two hours after I left that someone came running to me that Junior had been electrocuted. I immediately rushed to the scene and met people making frantic efforts to rescue him.
“We eventually removed the earpiece from his ears, unplugged the handset from the power socket and rushed him to the hospital. But he died just as we were about stepping into the hospital.
“I was told that Junior plucked the handset, which he also connected to the earpiece, into the power socket so as to charge the phone. He was also using the earpiece connected to the phone to listen to some music on the phone.
“Some people said he slept off while listening to the music on the phone and charging the phone at the same time. They said it was while doing that he suddenly shouted for help, and when people rushed to him, he was already gasping for air.”
She however, said that her son would not have died if he got help on time:
“If there had been elderly people around, apart from his elder brother who wasn’t clever enough to devise a better means of saving Junior, my son might have survived the electrocution.”
When asked if it was a usual thing for his late son to listen to music on his mobile phone while charging it, Mama Chibuzor said:
“I only know that he was an obedient boy who didn’t get into trouble with anyone. He was also very dutiful; he never got tired of running errands in the house at anytime. Only God understands why this happened to him,” she said.
His body was committed to mother-earth three days after he was confirmed dead. The mother also said all his pictures, clothes, and every other thing that could bring back memories of him have been removed by the family.