A family and residents of 46, Olatunji road, Ojota, Lagos State were thrown into mourning yesterday when the bodies of two siblings were found lifeless in a shop, with strange white-like substances around their mouth and head.
The brothers, Michael, aged 21 and Paul, aged 19 years were found yesterday morning by a neighbour who wondered why the shop was not opened so late in the day. Placing calls to their mobile phones, the phones were found to be ringing in the shop. The neighbour, who didn’t want his name in print, said he started getting worried because they all knew the duo usually slept in the shop and were the first to open for business on the street.
Raising an alarm, he gathered other neighbours who forced the shop open only to discover the lifeless bodies inside. Loud cries immediately filled the air as people started wondering if the duo committed suicide or were killed. However, police officers from the Area H police station, who were called to the scene carried out some preliminary investigations on the spot and determined that they were choked with the carbon monoxide from a running generating set inside the shop.
The neighbour confirmed that they usually put on the generating set to sleep if there was no power but argued that the generator couldn’t have led to their death, suspecting foul play. “This is not the first time they are using this generator though it is quite new. The generator supplies light to the whole house and we usually put it on when there is no power, which is almost everyday. More investigations should be carried out because we are suspecting there is more to this than meets the eye. How can two whole human beings just go like that in one day? We need more light on this,” he wept.
Meanwhile, their bodies were bagged and handed over to the police and an officer from the station who pleaded anonymity said they would be handed over to the family after proper investigations have been done.In another development, a 300-level medical student of the Niger Delta University (NDU), Uzakah Timi Ebiweni, has committed suicide in Bayelsa State for failing his Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) examination. It was reported that Ebiweni took a plunge into a river close to the university campus, Amassoma located in the Southern Ijaw area council of the state.
About 50 students, out of the 169 who sat for the MBBS exam, failed. The police public relations officer in the state, SP Asinim Butswat, confirmed the incident but said there was no official report yet.
However, the public relations officer of the university, Ndoni Ingezi said: “Eniweni took his own life after news that he was part of 22 students shortlisted to be withdrawn from the college came out. You know it is a general practice that every student passes the MBBS exams before progressing to the next level of academic pursuit. But Ebiweni and 21 others failed beyond the level that they could be placed on academic probation for another academic year so they had to be withdrawn.
“So in their usual practice, they do not break the news to the student until they are invited for counseling. When Ebiweni was counseled and informed about the fact that he will be withdrawn from college, on that day, he accepted the decision in good fate and left. Only for the university to hear afterwards that the young man took his own life. His body has been recovered and deposited at the Sabageria mortuary.”
