Tenants Flee After Missing Student is Found Dead in Latrine Pit (Photo)

Kehinde Toba (Photo credit: Punch)

 

A primary one pupil of Fasok Nursery and Primary School in the Ketu area of Lagos State, identified as Kehinde Toba has died after he slipped and fell into an open 25-foot latrine.

 

According to reports, the five-year-old boy who was walking to his house on Wednesday around 7pm fell into the open latrine and could not be saved. Neighbours said the boy was staying with his uncle on Alapere Street.

 

However, the boy died as a result of negligence and carelessness as he was sealed up by a bricklayer who later came to cover the open pit without knowing the boy was trapped inside the pit.

 

Policemen from the Alapere divison were said to have arrested the caretakers of the house, as tenants had fled for fear of being implicated. His guardian, Julius Adeniyi, said the two buildings shared the same exit doors.

 

He said, “Their mother is a trader, but she stays in the Seme, Badagry area of Lagos State. The three children live with me.

“On Wednesday, Kehinde returned from school and started doing his homework along with his classmates.” He explained that he got the shockings around 7pm when a friend told him that his brother was missing.

 

“I informed his mother, who started crying. I was also confused because we could not tell what had become of him. His mother left Seme for our hometown in Ipokia, Ogun State, and after our family members there made some consultations, they were assured that the boy would be found,” he added.

 

Explaining further how the boy fell into the pit and the carelessness of the tenants who lived in the building, a resident said the tenants of the affected house had emptied the latrine since January 2016. She explained the concrete fell into the pit and nothing was done about it along time ago.

 

She said, “A bricklayer made a new concrete slab and placed it beside the pit because they had yet to pay him for the job.

“However, on Thursday, the tenants began to look for the bricklayer to cover up the latrine.

“The bricklayer went and covered it up. He decided to take a break before cementing it. He went to a restaurant to eat and from there went to watch a football match at a viewing centre.

“As he returned to cement the slab he had placed over the latrine, he remembered that he left his earphones at the restaurant. It was at the restaurant that he heard the news of the missing boy.

“It was at this point that the bricklayer remembered seeing a pair of shoes inside the latrine he sealed.”

 

To show how wicked the tenants were, the bricklayer reportedly told them he found a corpse in the latrine, but he was allegedly asked to cover the latrine. That was why they took to their heels when police came to arrest them.

 

However, the police arrested the two caretakers in charge of the house, while the tenants in the house took to their heels. The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident, adding that the police did not arrest anybody.