A collapsed overhead water storage tank has crushed and killed a 34-year-old lady, Joy Amadi, in Benin.
A witness account reported that the family of the deceased, who recently completed her national youth service, had been plunged into grief.
The deceased was said to have been in her room when the tank erected in a neighbour’s new building collapsed, penetrating the roofing sheet and crushing her to death.
The incident, it was learnt, occurred on August 4 on Enagbare Street, Off Lucky Street, in Ikpoba, Okha Local Government Area of Edo State.
Speaking with NAN on Friday, Mrs Beatrice Amadi, the deceased’s mother, said her daughter was inside helping her to shell melon when the tragedy struck.
The deceased, who was a teacher at a private school in the area, the mother said, did not go to work because she had free periods throughout the day.
She described Joy as kind, humble and hardworking, adding that she helped the family pay their house rent.
Mrs Amadi said the death of her daughter was devastating and had left a vacuum in the family that would be difficult to fill.
“Since Joy grew up, I have neither swept this house nor washed my clothes. She did everything and even helped pay our house rent.
“I will miss a lot about her. It will be difficult to live without my daughter,” the obviously grieving mother told NAN.
The deceased’s father, Mr Michael Amadi, said he was at work when he received a distress call.
“When I returned home, I met people gathered at my residence, where the sad news was broken to me.”
Meanwhile, sources blamed the incident on a shoddy job by the engineer handling the project.
The sources disclosed that the bereaved family’s neighbour’s new house belonged to somebody who lived abroad.
“You know our people now, perhaps because the owner is not around, the engineer carried out a shoddy job.
“Unfortunately, the thing left the compound to kill the lady in the next house,” one of the sources said.
However, Mr Amadi said the site engineer had been arrested by the police while the corpse of her daughter had been deposited at an undisclosed mortuary.
The deceased’s family hails from Affa in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Edo Police Command, SP Chidi Nwabuzor, said he had yet to be briefed.
Source: NAN
