… He was to take delivery of his first car the following day, neighbours lament
By WOLE BALOGUN Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Adewale
Photo: Sun News Publishing
It is one incident that has continued to mystify residents of Suberu-Oje, a community in Agbado-Oke Odo Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) of Lagos State. Sadly, no answer has been forthcoming for the mourning members of the community.
Even now, the question still persists: why should Nurudeen Adewale Rasheed, a 30-year-old man in the community, drown just three days before the housewarming ceremony of his new house and a day before the arrival of first car?
Some even argued that if NAS, as the young man was fondly called by youths in the community, had been forewarned by a seer not to venture out of his home on Monday, October 16, and if he had heeded the warning and stayed with his beautiful wife and two lovely young daughters, he probably wouldn’t have drowned in an afternoon rain that eventually took his life.
But his fate, it seemed, was already decided that fateful day. The young man slipped and fell into a gutter that runs into a deep canal in the area. Adewale’s fall into the gutter during the rain was said to have happened under questionable circumstances as his pair of slippers, which he had removed in order to cross the gutter, was still at the spot where he kept it, on the pavement of the gutter, untouched by the flood that washed him away.
Uche, a resident of the community, who witnessed the tragic scenario, told Daily Sun that Adewale was coming from his place of work at the Aluminium Village that fateful afternoon when the cruel fate befell him. Said Uche: “He was on a motorbike which he had hired to take him home and he was just a few yards away from his house. The bridge that covered the gutter on the road had been flooded and the only option left for motorbikes and passers-by was to jump over the gutter.
This was what Adewale wanted to do when he removed his Palm slippers and made an attempt to roll his trousers up to his knees to enable him cross properly. But he suddenly slipped and fell into the gutter in the process. By that time, the gutter was already flooded almost to its brim. Adewale struggled frantically to save his life but he was overpowered by the torrents of the flood, which succeeded in sending him into the dangerous canal that collects water from about six gutters in the neighouring communities. We later found his corpse the following day just some distance from that canal.”
Suberu-Oje community in Alagbado, Agbado-Oke –Odo LCDA was thrown into confusion and mourning when the news of Adewale’s death went round. The youths of the community trooped out in their hundreds to search for his body in all the thickets surrounding the community. Commercial motorbike operators, otherwise known as okada operators suspended their operations and joined in the search, even as women and children wailed uncontrollably.
This reporter was told that Adewale was not just the leader of the youths in the community, he had also assisted many of them on several occasions. One of the leaders of the search team, Mr. Rasheed Ajayi, said: “Adewale was a very good man. He was a man loved and highly admired by the young and old of Suberu-Oje. Before the flood cruelly took him away, he was working at the Aluminium Village. He was to do his house warming two days after the incident, a Wednesday. In fact, his new car, which he had also paid for, was to arrive the day after he drowned. It is so pathetic and very cruel. I think fate wasn’t really fair to him.”
According to another eyewitness and a resident of the area, immediate frantic efforts made to save Adewale were thwarted by another heavy rain that fell later that afternoon and which lasted till the following morning.
Daily Sun reporter went with a team of youths that traced Adewale’s corpse to the end of the gutter into which he had slipped the previous day. The gutter empties into a wide canal that comes from the main road. There is a very deep space in the canal that serves as a huge reservoir for the water coming from the gutter. The search team suspected that Adewale might have been buried in that deep space. They swung into action immediately. Some young men brought three ladders and went inside the canal. But they were not able to achieve much from that effort. They then resolved to invite officials of the Lagos State Drain Ducks.
But after many calls put to the officials did not yield the desired fruits, the youths gave up. They later invited some traditional swimmers, two Hausa men and another youth, who volunteered to go inside the canal. The three men dived into the brownish water and searched deep inside but could not find the corpse.
Claiming that the bad drainage system in the area caused the death of their leader, the youths in the community promptly started a protest. They took their grievances to the office of the LCDA chairman in the area, saying they would make the authorities feel their anger in whatever way they could.
When the Daily Sun reporter visited Adewale’s rented apartment at 5, Adekunle Bamgboye Street in Suberu-Oje, the day after he drowned, untold grief was written on the faces of people in the apartment. His mother, wife and some other relatives cried profusely as they lamented their loss. One of them, an elderly woman, who was later discovered to be his aunt, said in between sobs: “He slipped and fell into the gutter and before we could blink our eyes, Adewale had disappeared into the torrents of water and we couldn’t see him again. Ah, this is evil! The evil people have done their worst. They have taken him away from us. God will judge this o!”
Adewale’s wife, who was crying profusely and who cuddled a very young baby girl, could only manage a sentence when she spoke to the reporter. “Nurudeen once said that I would suffer if he dies. Now that he has gone, I will suffer with my children.”
Not even the consoling words from the reporter and others in the room could comfort the woman.
via Daily Sun
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