MORE than four days after four siblings were killed in a mudslide which
rammed into their home in the early hours of last Saturday, the agony
of death still hangs heavily in the Otun-Araromi community. The
building, located at 50, Otun-Araromi Street, Orisa-Magodo- Isheri,
Lagos, was besieged by sympathisers, most of whom could not hold back
their tears.
Owned by Mr. Okeoseye Odia, a former police officer who works with Aero contractors, the house is situated on a valley behind Magodo Estate in Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State.
As at Wednesday when The Nation visited, the pains of the tragedy had yet to wear off the faces of the members of the community. Sympathizers have not ceased thronging the building to commiserate with the bereaved family. Also, onlookers are visiting to see the scene of the tragedy where nature’s fury swallowed the lives of four young boys without warning.Nature should not be blamed
Describing the sordid event as shocking, Mr. Friday Odia, the elder brother of the deceased, showed sympathizers the room where the four boys slept before the fence of a building built on a hill behind the house collapsed and the debris mixed with the force of rainwater and mud surged into the house, burying the four boys alive.
Weighed down by despair, Friday managed to recount what happened.
“The true story of what happened is that the tragedy was caused by the building behind our house. About six months ago, the owner of that building extended the land and constructed another building and channel water in the direction of our building. The fence got weakened in the course of time and the heavy downpour added to the final break down.
“Since this tragedy happened, the owner of the building has not thought it fit to come around. We are begging Nigerians to come to our aid. We are talking about four boys here. They should be the leaders of tomorrow but they died like chicken. We are begging the Lagos State government to come to our aid. We need intervention in this matter because we don’t want to take laws into our hands”.
Describing the last moments of the deceased children, the younger Odia said the children were full of life and looked to the future with great expectations.
“These children were the pillar of the family. They were brilliant and smart; one of them even led his class in academics. They had good prospects for the future”.
The deceased, 23-year-old Sayo Odia, Clinton Odia (13), Dasilva Odia (15), and Endurance Odia (10), were said to be trapped in the debris for eight hours before their remains could be evacuated. The mother of two of them is still in the hospital. She was hospitalised as a result of the shock from the tragedy.
‘Our family needs intervention’
When he left for Benin-City some months ago to pursue his educational aspirations at the National Open University (NOUN) Study Centre in Edo State, Lucky Odia, an immediate elder brother to the deceased, didn’t have the premonition that he would have to rush back to mourn the death of his four younger siblings with whom he grew up with.
Responding to how the family have been coping after the sad occurrence, he said sleep has eluded the family and their lifestyle is destabilised.
“We are trying to console dad. Mum has remained in the hospital ever since; we pray she survives”.
On what he will miss most about his siblings, his response was distorted with teary eyes. “What won’t I miss about them? We had been together since childbirth; we grew up together, we ate and slept together. It is a memory that can never be forgotten. Losing four younger ones in a jiffy, I don’t think anyone understand how it feels”.
In an emotion laden voice, he appealed to well- meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of the distraught family who have been rendered homeless due to the sad occurrence.
“Right now, I have become someone who sleeps on the street. My other siblings are forced to make their abode in a neighbour’s house. I don’t know how a man like my dad who used to have nine children is now left with five. Government should look into this matter. They should put themselves in our shoes; whatever they can do for themselves in this situation, they should do for us”.
Mr Akinlabi Akinola, the chairman of the Parents/Teachers Forum of Babs Fafunwa Millennium Grammar School, where the children attended, also came to condole with the father of the deceased over the loss. He affirmed to The Nation that the information on the school teaching staff confirmed that the children were brilliant.
“ One of them already passed out from the school, another was in senior secondary school and from their performances so far, you could see they were brilliant children. They were science-oriented. It is quite a pathetic story. They were an asset for the family, a future asset for the state and the nation as a whole”.
Natural disaster or negligence?
Since the mudslide was triggered by a heavy down pour, could it be said to be an act of nature or negligence arising from a lack of concern and responsibility? The bereaved father, Okeoseye Odia, believes the latter.
“I built this house 10 years ago on a standard land. It was the building that was erected six months ago on the hill behind my house that masterminded the accident. My wife is hospitalised, the doctor said I should be on bed rest too because my blood pressure is on the rise, but who will I leave the remaining five children to? I am a depressed man and my head is heavy”.
Although he said no amount of compensation can bring back the lives of his children, he did not rule out pressing charges against the person who built the fence that allegedly masterminded the mudslide which claimed the lives of his four children”.
Some of the members of the community also corroborated Odia’s claim, saying that the mudslide which is quite becoming a regular occurrence in the environment, is caused by the greed of the wealthy landlords in Magodo hills who keep claiming more lands and channelling water to the valley which put the lives of the people in the valley at risk.
It was reported that another tragedy was averted when another mudslide occurred some six plots away from the site of the first accident at about 10.05 am on Saturday. The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has stepped in by marking many of the houses in the area, compelling the residents to evacuate immediately citing their safety.
Mrs. Tope Adeniba, a resident in the area, pleaded with government to help out members of the community as they have nowhere to turn to should they be compelled to evacuate.
“It is the rich people who are oppressing us that should be blamed. In places where they should have built bungalows, they constructed storey buildings without putting into consideration the topography of the land. They don’t only stop at that, they channel their water ways to the valley not minding the fact that some of the houses in the valleys had been built before their own buildings came into existence”, she submitted.
Mudslides, according to findings, occur when a large amount of water causes the rapid erosion of soil on a steep slope. Rapid snowmelt at the top of intense rainfall can trigger a mudslide, as the great volume of water mixes with soil and causes it to liquefy and move downhill.
With four of his nine children gone and his building destroyed, Odia, his two wives and five remaining children now sleep in the open. Their hope of recuperation is uncertain.
Comments