Patience Ogbo/
The police in Lagos are suspecting that a poisoned rice meal or generator fume must have caused the death of a family of seven, including a set of twins and expectant mother whose bodies were found at their Lagos home in Mafoluku today.
When NewsmakersNG visited the house at 19, Olowora Street early today, residents identified the victims as one electrician called Mr. Zakariah aka Cool Money; his wife, a petty trader; their four children, three daughters – 11-year-old Aliyah; 5-year-old twins – Taiye and Kehinde, a 9-year-old boy named Farida and a 17-year-old female relative.
NewsmakersNG learnt that the school the children were attending had opened a register for them.
One of the teachers said, “This is a great loss. Four of them are in our school. They are very brilliant. One of the twins Taiye got a scholarship because she was very brilliant.”
Neighbours said they woke up at about 8am today and efforts to get the deceased family members to open their one room apartment door proved abortive.
One of the neighbours, Mr. Kazeem said, “We woke up at about 8am but when we did not see any of them. We decided to knock on their door but there was no response.
“We forced the door open and saw the lifeless body of the husband, his wife and their children. Also, their relative, a 17-year-old girl who came to visit them was among the deceased. There was blood coming out from the nose of the woman, and she defecated on herself. We saw a leftover cooked pot of rice which the police took away. The others had foam on their mouths. We rushed them to the hospital but they were declared dead on arrival.”
Another neighbour, Mr. Eze, said, “I want the police to investigate these deaths. We are sad. One thing is clear that inside their compound, all of them live as one. There is love among all the neighbours. The man is an electrician and his wife sells shoes and bags. They are peaceful people. Also, I know that the man cannot do without using generator. He has lived in here for more than six years and he used his generator which he kept close to his window because their side of the building is very hot.”
NewsmakersNG‘s correspondent noticed as the council officials were sealing the building while policemen from the Makinde Police station led by the Divisional Police Officer were among the first respondents who visited the scene and evacuated the corpses.
An aggrieved resident who pleaded for anonymity said, “It is wrong for neighbours to pick even a pin from this building.”
Officials from Oshodi Local Government Council have sealed the building.
