A 37-year-old man, William Madu, has been electrocuted in Sapele, Delta State while trying to change the source of power supply from a generator.
Eyewitnesses said the incident, which occurred on Oleh Road around 1.35pm on Sunday, threw the entire community into mourning, as the deceased was said to be the breadwinner of his family and was also taking care of his aged father and siblings.
A neighbour described the young man’s death as devastating to the Madu family.
According to eyewitnesses, the deceased, who was an employee of a water processing company, was watching a popular television programme in his house when the incident happened.
One of the eyewitnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “William was watching TV when the BEDC restored power supply and because the generator was outside, he quickly left his one-room apartment to switch off the generator and the next thing we heard was a little boy screaming. We dashed out to find him struggling with the wire and we had to switch off the power source from the building before we could go near him.”
It was gathered that William died before neighbours could get him to hospital.
“As I speak to you, his body is in the mortuary,” the eyewitness stated.
Our correspondent gathered that the father of the deceased was in shock and finding it difficult to accept the reality of his only son’s death.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Onome Onovwakpoyeya, pleaded for more time to get the details of the incident from the Divisional Police Officer.
She had, however, yet to revert to our correspondent as of the time of filing this report.
