Tears as three-year-old boy dies inside Lagos soakaway

Police man

A three-year-old boy, Chibuike Uba, has lost his life after falling into an open soakaway at Babarinsa in the Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident occurred on Wednesday when the boy’s mother, Utoro, visited her aunt in the community.

It was gathered that Utoro, who resides in the Epe area of the state, was packing her belongings and preparing to leave when her son left her in the room to meet her aunt who stepped out to make a phone call.

However, when her aunt returned, Uba asked about the child’s whereabouts, only to realise he was nowhere to be found.

In a frantic search, Uba spotted her son’s slippers near the open soakaway on the next compound and raised the alarm.

In a voice note sent to our correspondent on Thursday, Utoro, who had since remained inconsolable, said, “I visited my aunt and was packing my bags to head back home when she received a call and my son followed her outside. I continued packing, assuming he was still with her. When she came back inside, I asked about my son’s whereabouts, and she claimed he had returned inside. I said no and quickly rushed outside to search for him but couldn’t find him.

“That was when I noticed his slippers near the soakaway on the next compound beside the house because it has no fence. I immediately shouted that my baby was inside the soakaway. That was how we quickly made efforts to pull him out and rushed him to the hospital.”

Punch