Husband dies saving wife from electrocution in Bauchi

Tragedy befell a family in Bauchi at the weekend when its breadwinner, Mr. Salihu Yahaya, a businessman, lost his life while trying to save his wife from being electrocuted.

Mr. Sani Ahmed, who described himself as ‘one of the boys’ of the deceased, said the tragedy occurred at about 6:40p.m. on Saturday. “One of the wives of the deceased, Halima, was trying to spread a wet material on a wire in the house meant for drying of clothes, but unknown to her, the wire had contact with wall security barb wire connected to electricity.

“She was instantly electrified and raised the alarm, after which the deceased rushed to rescue her by trying to use his bare hand to pull off the wire in contact with her.

“Unfortunately, as at the time he responded to her alarm, he was performing ablution for his evening prayers and his hands were wet. He was able to rescue the wife but was also electrified by the current in the wire, as a result of which he was thrown to the ground and died while being rushed to the hospital,” he said.

Ahmed said he and others also took the wife to the hospital for medical attention, saying she was now at home in a stable condition.

When newsmen visited the residence of the deceased along NYSC Street in Fadaman Mada area of Bauchi metropolis, they could not secure an interview with the affected wife as she was in a mourning mood and receiving sympathisers. The late Yahaya left behind two wives and six children.

It would be recalled that the Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria (NECAN) had recently raised the alarm that no fewer than 366 Nigerians lost their lives in 2017 as a result of negligence and defective systems in the distribution arm of the industry, calling on electricity power authorities come up with a sustainable solution to remedy the problem.

According to NECAN National Secretary, Uket Abonga, statistics of the fatalities reveal that 86.8 per cent of the victims were electricity consumers while the remaining 13.2 per cent were officials of the electricity companies. Abonga said investigations carried out by NECAN revealed that many of the accidents that occurred in the preceding year in the sector could be attributed to man-made factors, which included inadequate knowledge, information and ignorance on the part the consumers and operators, system protection equipment failures, in some cases total absence of protection devices, poor and aging transmission network lines, aging distribution networks which used to be replaced, poor response to complaints of faulty facilities and lines by staff of the transmission and distribution companies.

“That the number of casualties from electrocution is high is an understatement. Yet most of them result from a lackadaisical attitude of the electricity company workers, who most often ignore early warnings and appeals from residents about faulty wires in their neighbourhoods. In several places across the country today, there are many old and broken-down wooden and concrete electricity poles, some with naked wires dangling overhead. It only takes a serious rainfall or heavy wind to blow off some of the poles.”