Tragedy struck in Egbeda area of Lagos State, in the early hours of Thursday, when a man, simply identified as Mutairu, an indigene of Sokoto State, was found dead in his makeshift apartment.
Mutairu, a petty trader, who specialized in selling noodles and tea at 83, Egbeda-Idimu Road, was said to have been killed by fume from a generating set he put in his room while sleeping.
The incident was reported to the police at the Area “M” Command, Idimu.
According to an eyewitness and a close friend of the deceased, simply identified as Kabiru, Mutairu was killed by fume from his generating set which he left running in his room till dawn.
Kabiru said: “Mutairu is a native of Sokoto, in Ilela Town. He has been doing Maishai business (tea seller) for many years here. A lot of people knew him as a dutiful fellow who related well with everyone irrespective of class, religion or ethnic background.
“We were surprised to find him dead this morning (yesterday). Somebody just called to inform me that I should run down to Mutairu’s house as he could not be found around which was unusual.
“When I got there, we knocked repeatedly on his door without response but we could hear the sound of a generator working inside.
“After a while, we decided to climb the roof of the makeshift building because the three doors leading to his room were locked.
“We broke into the room and right before us was the lifeless body of Mutairu on the bed. We quickly put off the generator as the entire room had been saturated with the fume.
“We could not apply any first aid to revive him because he was already dead. It is so painful. Probably, he was unaware of the inherent danger in keeping generator working inside a house.”
The remains of the deceased were later taken to his home town in Sokoto State.
