Mobile phone sends a 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 ChibuzorDaily Sun learnt that 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.