Fear gripped residents of Adak Uko Street in Calabar, Cross River State Monday night, when a student of Cross River University of Technology, CRUTECH and a seamstress lost their lives due to electrocution.
The victims simply identified as David, and Mrs. Dominic Udoh, a mother of three, died after sustaining severe burns.
The incident, which occurred at 14, Adak Uko Street off Inyang in Calabar South Local Government Area, also ignited a fire that gutted the entire building and a kiosk in front of the compound.
The landlord of the house, Mr. Richard Ikpeme, told Vanguard that the incident started at 8 p.m., and this was the fourth incident this year as the high tension wire had dropped in March, August and September before the recent one on October 23 that killed two people and razed his house.
His words: “I have cried out several times to Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHED, to fix this problem, but they felt I was disturbing them. It happened in March, when they came to fix it. It happened again in August and September 13.
“We had to use dry wood to remove the live wire to a safe place before they came and when they fixed it, they joined the wires in between.
“When I saw the kind of job they did, I raised the alarm and told them that it will fail. But the leader of the team and his people ignored me and drove off. Now the disaster has happened.”
The Acting Chief Executive Officer, PHED, Engr. Kingsley Achife, said an investigation team has been constituted with a view to finding out the remote causes of the accident.
