OAU mourns student electrocuted while retrieving ball

A student at the Distant Learning Centre of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (name not given) has reportedly been electrocuted while retrieving a ball from a compound in Moro, Osun State.

Sources near the scene of the incident said it happened Saturday evening in a private hostel located along the Moro/Ife route.

It was learnt that the deceased had gone to the compound next to the one where he lived to retrieve a ball.

After retrieving the ball, he was said to have thrown it to his colleagues and was about to jump over the fence when, unknowingly, he had contact with a high-tension wire, which immediately electrocuted him.

A resident of Moro, who was close to the scene of the incident, told The PUNCH on Sunday on condition of anonymity, “The incident happened on Saturday. The deceased was playing football in his hostel with other boys.

“The ball strayed across the fence to the next compound. The deceased volunteered to jump across the fence to retrieve the ball, but he accidentally came into contact with a dangling high-tension wire on the fence. The wire was brought down on Friday by the rainstorm.

“He was immediately electrocuted. When his colleagues observed he was not moving, they used a stick to separate him from the wire, and he was rushed down to a private hospital in Ipetumodu. He was confirmed dead at the facility.”

When contacted, the OAU Public Relations Officer, Mr Abiodun Olanrewaju, confirmed the incident and condoled with the family of the deceased.

Olanrewaju said, “It is unfortunate that we recorded an incident that was not palatable yesterday (Saturday) where we lost a prominent youngster.”

One of our CDL students was aspiring to come to the university after the completion of his programme.

“Report had it that they were playing football in the evening and the ball fell into a compound that was fenced and unknown to the young man, he jumped into the fence because he was the one that played the ball into the compound and it was a rule that anybody who played the ball into the compound will go to retrieve it.

“In compliance with the rule, the boy went in there, and we were told that that was the first time the boy would play with them. So, he went in there, retrieved the ball, and threw it out to his colleagues, but when he wanted to come out, he climbed the fence but unknowingly put his hand on a high-tension wire and got electrocuted.

“It was when his colleagues felt he should have come back that they went to check and saw that he was there shivering. They rushed to him, and one of them picked a stick and removed the life wire from his hand. He was rushed to the facility at the Center for Distance Learning at the university.

“They said he was brought in dead, and they took him to another hospital where they said the boy was already dead. The Director of the CDL, Professor Femi Koya, had already contacted the parents to relate the unfortunate incident to them.”