Man who fell from two-storey building in Lagos dies

Residents of Ijegun community in Lagos are mourning the death of a man who mysteriously fell from an uncompleted two-storey building in the area.

The residents said the death of Mr. Ademola Kayode on Tuesday, April 26 was extremely painful because the death could have been averted if state emergency officials contacted had come to the victim’s aid.

The Fagbile Estate community, Phase 3, Ijegun was thrown into utter confusion in the afternoon of Sunday, April 24, when Kayode was suddenly found lying inside a small bush beside an uncompleted building in the area. Nobody knew who he was, where he came from or how exactly he fell. There was no on-going work in the uncompleted building at the time.

According to residents, Ademola Kayode was found lying virtually lifeless in the bush that Sunday. They initially thought he was dead until they found out that he was breathing. They then carried him out of the bush into the uncompleted building.

When our correspondent visited the scene the following day, the man, who claimed to be 39, was seen lying on a plank inside the uncompleted structure. He intermittently groaned and writhed in pains. He said he slept on the first floor of the uncompleted building in the evening of Friday, April 22. He said he woke up on Saturday morning and mysteriously found himself in agonizing pain among shrubs on the ground.

He had told the reporter: “I don’t know how I fell. I was sleeping on the last floor that Friday night, but I woke up and found myself on the ground on Saturday morning. I lay there crying out for help. But it was on Sunday that residents saw me and brought me out of the bush into the uncompleted building. I feel pains all over my back and I cannot move, sit or stand.”

For three days, Kayode was in the uncompleted building with no proper attention from anywhere. Residents intermittently fed him with pap, as they made efforts to get help. They said they had been calling the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) since Sunday afternoon, regretting that no official of the agency had been there.

“That Sunday, when we realized that he was still alive, many of the landlords called the emergency number 767 and 112. The officials kept assuring us that they would come, but since then, and even till now, nobody has seen them,” a resident blasted on Monday.

The victim had told the reporter that he was from Idoani in Ondo State. He also disclosed that he was a labourer but did not know where and how to get any of his relatives in Lagos. As a result, no one could be contacted to render any assistance, or at least stand in for him at the hospital.

Why didn’t the people take him to the hospital? “Nobody could take him to the hospital, because he has no phone, and he doesn’t know how to contact any of his relatives. We are helpless. We’ve tried calling the police to help, but they told us it’s not their matter,” another resident lamented.

Secretary of the Fagbile Estate Phase 3 Community Development Association (CDA), Mr. A.T Shokuni said Kayode’s fall was mysterious.

On Tuesday, after waiting endlessly for LASEMA officials, some of the residents took Kayode to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital where he reportedly died shortly after.