Varsity student electrocuted while retrieving ball
Story from Hamzat Ibrahim
A weekend game of football turned tragic in Moro, Osun State, as a student of the Obafemi Awolowo University Centre for Distance Learning was electrocuted while attempting to retrieve a ball that had crossed into a neighbouring compound.
“The incident happened on Saturday. The deceased was playing football in his hostel with other boys,” said a resident of Moro, who spoke to PUNCH Online on condition of anonymity. “The ball strayed across the fence to the next compound.
The deceased volunteered to jump across the fence to retrieve the ball, but accidentally he had contact with a dangling high-tension wire on the fence. The wire was brought down on Friday by the rainstorm.”
“He was immediately electrocuted. When his colleagues observed he was not moving, they used a stick to separate him from the wire, and he was rushed down to a private hospital in Ipetumodu. There he was confirmed dead at the facility,” the resident added.
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Confirming the incident, the university’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju, expressed sadness over the loss.
“It is unfortunate that we recorded an incident that was not palatable yesterday (Saturday) where we lost a prominent youngster; one of our CDL students who was aspiring to come to the university after the completion of his programme,” he said.
“Report had it that they were playing football in the evening and the ball fell into a compound that was fenced and unknown to the young man, he jumped into the fence because he was the one that played the ball into the compound and it was a rule that anybody who played the ball into the compound will go to retrieve it.”
“In compliance with the rule, the boy went in there and we were told that, that was the first time the boy would play with them.
“So, he went in there, retrieved the ball, and threw it out to his colleagues, but when he wanted to come out, he climbed the fence but unknowingly put his hand on a high-tension wire and got electrocuted.”
“It was when his colleagues felt he should have come back, that they went to check and saw that he was there shivering. They rushed to him and one of them picked a stick and removed the life wire from his hand.”
He was rushed to the facility at the Center for Distance Learning at the university.”
“They said he was brought in dead and they took him to another hospital where they said the boy was already dead.
The Director of the CDL, Professor Femi Koya had already contacted the parents to relate the unfortunate incident to them,” Olanrewaju concluded.
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