Joy Oluchi Osuchukwu, a 40-year-old widow with three kids, has been electrocuted to death by naked streetlight cables allegedly abandoned carelessly by some officials of Ebonyi state’s Ministry of Power.
The incident took place in front of Udoka Hall, along Water Works Road in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi state.
The deceased, a native of Umunze community in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra state, lost her husband, Kingsley Osuchukwu, four years ago
Recounting what happened, an eyewitness said the late Oluchi was returning home from the neighbourhood, where she had gone to fetch water, and unknowingly stepped on the naked cables.
Some shop owners who were at the scene of the incident said that the officials of the state’s Ministry of Power had worked on that particular streetlight cable earlier in the day and abandoned the naked cables.
They alleged that they had pleaded with them to cover it before leaving but they gave them flimsy excuse that they would come back later and left.
“That same day, at about 8:30pm, the woman passed through that area not knowing that there were naked cables there and she was electrocuted instantly”, one of them said.
Uchenna Joseph Obi, a relative to the deceased said he had just returned from the church before the tragedy struck, and blamed the officials of the state’s Ministry of Power for being responsible for her untimely death.
“The residents of that area told us that officials of the Ministry of Power in charge of the streetlights came in the afternoon that same day and worked on their streetlights. They abandoned those naked wires and left.
“If you go there now, you will still see those naked wires there. They just left them on the footpath where people pass often. We are very angry. This is carelessness on the path of the government officials.
“We have contacted the state governor, Chief David Umahi. We sent him a text message. We first contacted his deputy, Dr Kelechi Igwe and afterwards, contacted the governor himself”, he narrated.
Meanwhile, all efforts to reach the state’s Commissioner for Power, Emmanuel Uguru, on the telephone proved abortive as his phone was switched off.
