The family of Effiong Etim has been thrown into mourning after he was allegedly killed by a company driver, Henry Uduze.
PUNCH Metro learnt that
47-year-old Effiong was returning from work on his motorcycle when he
was allegedly crushed to death by Uduze on Omole Estate Phase II.
Witnesses said the suspect was receiving a telephone call when the incident happened.
Our correspondent was told that Effiong,
a security guard, gave up the ghost at the Accident and Emergency
Centre at the tollgate area, Ikeja.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the accident happened around 9am on Monday.
He said, “The company driver was coming
out of a bank when he was distracted by the call he was receiving. He
crushed Effiong and hit another motorcyclist. The back tyre climbed
Effiong’s head, but the second victim survived.
“The driver wanted to run away, but the security man at the bank held him. The case was reported at the Isheri Police Station.”
The victim’s wife, Dorothy, a housemaid,
said she was at her workplace when she was called that her husband had
been taken to a hospital by men of the Federal Road Safety Corps and the
police.
She explained that she rushed out and met her husband at the emergency centre.
She said, “His head was bandaged. His
private parts were connected to a pipe. He could not open his eyes or
talk. He was writhing in pain on the bed. After a brief moment, a nurse
sent me out.”
The mother of seven children told our
correspondent that the family was given a referral to the Gbagada and
Lagos Island general hospitals, adding that the two hospitals said they
didn’t have a bed space.
Dorothy said the family secured a bed
space at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, and they
were asked to pay N50,000 for the treatment and drugs the victim got at
the emergency centre.
She said, “One of the boys of the man
that hit my husband said they could only afford N30,000. When I rejected
the money, the policeman who accompanied us said if I didn’t take it,
they would leave me to bear the burden alone. Since I was helpless, I
had to take it and I added the remaining money.
“When it was evening, a nurse at the
centre said she didn’t want to break the news to me directly, but since I
had refused to go home, she had no choice. She said my husband was
dead.”
PUNCH Metro learnt that the
corpse was deposited in a mortuary, while the victim’s wife was taken to
the Isheri Police Station to make her statement.
Dorothy said the suspect’s company’s
lawyer offered N30,000 as payment for her husband’s mortuary bill,
adding that the lawyer said her family would be compensated “based on
our worth.”
“My church got a lawyer for us and after
the lawyer spoke with them, they promised to give us N250,000. But what
will I do with that? All I want is for them to bury my husband and help
my children. I want them to give my children scholarships,” she added.
The victim’s family’s lawyer, Mrs. Nike Olawepo, said efforts to see representatives of the suspect’s company had been abortive.
She said, “The suspect hit the victim
with his company’s vehicle. All efforts to see the company’s
representative have proved abortive; they seemed not to be bothered at
all. A lawyer, who claimed to be representing the company, said the
company can only assist in burying the deceased with N250, 000 and that
after the burial, the company will profile Etim’s family before it could
think of what to do about the case.
“The deceased, who was from Akwa-Ibom,
was the breadwinner of his family of eight and also has aged parents in
the village. The family is staying in a single room at Olowora and they
are indigent. If this case is not properly managed and investigated, the
family of the deceased will suffer double jeopardy.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, SP
Dolapo Badmos, promised to call back our correspondent, but she had yet
to do so as of press time.
Punch