Mobile phone sends 15-year-old to untimely grave

He was using his phone while charging the device, mum says

 Tears are still flowing in Okesa area of Ado-Ekiti, as the people continue to mourn the death of a 15-year-old boy, Junior Abia, in Okesa area of the Ekiti State capital. Junior was the second born of the Abias. His parents are popularly known as Papa and Mama Chibuzor. Tragedy struck in the home of the Abias on Friday, August 8, at about 2pm. On that day, Junior suddenly shouted for help, jolting his elder brother, Chibuzor, into action. Junior had an electric shock while listening to music on his mobile phone through the earpiece, as the handset was plugged into the wall socket, charging.After raising the alarm, Junior’s elder brother was said to have looked for a long stick with which he could remove the earpiece from Junior’s ears. It was gathered that when he could not have the earpiece removed, Chibuzor also raised the alarm and that alerted other people, who promptly swung into action to rescue Junior.The mobile phone was eventually removed from the power socket and Junior was rushed to a nearby hospital in the area, in a frantic effort to save his life. Unfortunately, the boy passed on just before the rescue team stepped into the hospital.

Narrating the ugly incident to the reporter at their two-room apartment in the area, Mama Chibuzor, who could not control her emotions, said: “Junior had assisted me in cooking some rice for sale in my stand at Okesa market before I left home. But it was hardly two hours after I left that someone came running to me that Junior had been electrocuted. I immediately rushed to the scene and met people making frantic efforts to rescue him.

“We eventually removed the earpiece from his ears, unplugged the handset from the power socket and rushed him to the hospital. But he died just as we were about stepping into the hospital.

“I was told that Junior plucked the handset, which he also connected to the earpiece, into the power socket so as to charge the phone. He was also using the earpiece connected to the phone to listen to some music on the phone.

“Some people said he slept off while listening to the music on the phone and charging the phone at the same time. They said it was while doing that he suddenly shouted for help, and when people rushed to him, he was already gasping for air.”

Mama Chibuzor further said his son would have lived had he got help on time. She said: “If there had been elderly people around, apart from his elder brother who wasn't clever enough to devise a better means of saving Junior, my son might have survived the electrocution.”

She said she couldn't say if Junior had been in the habit of listening to music on the cell phone while charging it. “I only know that he was an obedient boy who didn't get into trouble with anyone. He was also very dutiful; he never got tired of running errands in the house at anytime. Only God understands why this happened to him,” she lamented.

Junior was buried three days after his death. According to his mum, all his clothes, pictures, shoes and other things that could bring back some emotional memories had been removed by the family.