The residents of Adelayo Street in Jah-Michael
community, Olorunda area of Lagos have been thrown into
commotion following the discovery of the lifeless body of
eight children inside a Honda Pilot jeep with registration
number AAA157BD parked inside a fenced house.
The lifeless body of the children aged between four to
nine years old were discovered at about 5pm on Saturday
evening when Saliat Kazeem who wanted to feed her
granddaughter raised alarm that the children were trapped
inside the vehicle.
Saliat Kazeem, the owner of the building where the
incident happened was asleep when the children, including
her granddaughter entered and got trapped inside the
vehicle and died of suffocation.
When Vanguard got to the scene on Sunday afternoon,
relatives of family of the victims were at the scene, they
opened the gate to inspect the compound and held
meetings insinuating that there was more than meets the
eyes.
At the compound, shattered windscreen from the vehicle
littered the scene everywhere. Glasses from the window of
building which was destroyed by irrate residents were also
scattered on the ground.
Vanguard learned that the eight children involved are from
four different families. A family has three children, another
family has two, another has two while Saliat Kazeem has
one (granddaughter) The names of the children are,
Zainab, Tayab, Farida, Mamod, Yakubu, Wahab, Aisha and
Saliat Kazeem’s granddaughter.
According to Azeez, it was actually when the owner of the
building Saliat Kazeem woke up, that she discovered that
the children including her granddaughter whom she
wanted to feed was inside the vehicle.”
“When I heard the incident I rushed there like other
residents, we found out some of the children were still
alive, they were still breathing, we were telling them to
rush them to the hospital, but they were wasting time, they
didn’t do anything till it was late. By the time they
eventually took the grandchild of Saliat Kazeem to the
hospital, it was too late as she died on the way.”
“Yesterday was like war as young men in the community
wanted to set the house ablaze. Relatives of the affected
families attacked people who were passing yesterday.
A community leader in the area who spoke to Vanguard on
the condition of anonymity said yesterday agrieved youths
almost lynched Saliat Kazeem, the onwer of the vehicle
and building but for the police who intervened and sealed
off the building.
Yet to understand what was happening, a little boy who
identified himself as AbdulKareem, said my two siblings,
Aisha and Farida were among the children who died inside
the vehicle.
Lamenting, a resident, Adetayo Ojo, said “the gate is
hardly open, anytime we pass through this street, the gate
is always locked. So I wonder what happened that it was
opened and eight children went there to play.”
Confirming the incident, the spokesperson Lagos state
police command CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu said “eight
children were said to have mistakenly locked themselves
in an abandoned car while playing. Their bodies have been
recovered and deposited at the Badagry General
Hospital’s morgue for autopsy so as to determine the
actual cause of death. Notwithstanding the report made to
the Police, the Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem
Odumosu, has ordered a thorough and speedy
investigation into the circumstances surrounding their
death. The CP also commiserates with the families of the
victims.”
