Concrete railing crushes woman to death in Ogun

Faulty concrete railings from a storey building that gave way, on Monday, struck a 51-year-old woman, Mrs Modupe Bankole, dead in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Mrs Modupe, a mother of three, was relaxing on a mat she spread outside the room to take cool evening breeze when the concrete railings suddenly lost balance and collapsed on her.

The Nation learnt that the unfortunate incident occurred last Saturday, and left other residents of the building worrying about their safety.

A witness told The Nation that he sighted tenants packing their properties out of the building on Monday morning.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning, Yetunde Dina, visited the scene to assess the situation.

Mrs Dina said the state government would investigate the incident, adding that the ministry would also dispatch engineers to the scene and ascertain the health of the surviving part of the structure.

Modupe’s husband, Mr Samuel Bankole, told journalists that they have been living in the affected building in the last 12 years.

Grieving Bankole, a teacher at a private school in Lafenwa area of Abeokuta, added that he was preparing his lesson note when the incident happened.

“My wife told me in the house that she was going to prepare food. After finishing the preparation, she came to me and took a small mat and a pillow and spread it out to take breeze. She spread it even very far away from the collapsed decking.

“I was preparing my own note of lesson that time. I told her that when I finished writing, I will join her there. When I finished, I came out. Few children were moving up and down there until suddenly a neighbour called them and sent them on an errand.

“My last born came back from his place of apprenticeship and even slept beside the mother. He later left to see a friend. Shortly after, I just heard the sound of the collapsed decking over my head.

“I believed that since my wife was not directly under that thing, she was safe and I just ran outside and started shouting ‘thank you Jesus,” he said.

According to him, his wife might have been hit by broken blocks from the fallen structure.

Bankole said his wife died shortly after she was taken to the hospital.