A 27-year-old man drowned while trying to bring out a bucket that fell inside a well at Alaja community, in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State.
According to PUNCH, the deceased, said to be a conductor and his boss, a truck driver were heading to a destination in the state on Saturday, February 18, 2023, when the truck developed a mechanical fault around the Powerline/Moniya end of the new Ibadan/Oyo Expressway.
It was gathered that the driver parked the truck while the deceased took a bucket to go and search for water to fill the radiator. He went to one of the mechanic shops in Alaja community where he found a well.
An eyewitness, who spoke to the publication on Sunday, said the motor boy, upon sighting the well, started searching for a fetcher to get water but did not find any. He then tied a rope to the bucket and threw it in the well.
The rope cut and the bucket fell into the well. The motor boy entered the well and drowned.
“I saw the young man yesterday (Saturday) when the driver parked the truck. I think the truck developed a little fault. As a motor boy, he must look for water for the radiator,” the witness narrated.
“He searched for a drawer and didn’t see one; he then tied a rope to a bucket. But unfortunately, the rope suddenly cut into two and the bucket fell inside the well. So he drowned when he entered the well to remove the bucket,”
The resident said people got to know that the motor boy had drowned when the truck driver raised the alarm after finding his slippers close to the well, adding that emergency rescue operatives that were alerted visited the area to retrieve the victim’s corpse from the well.
“Nobody was aware until a few minutes later when his boss was looking for him. He saw his slippers beside the well and raised the alarm. At that time, nobody was courageous enough to enter there to pick up the corpse until the arrival of the officials of the fire service with the assistance of police officers.
“We don’t know his identity, we only heard that the victim joined the driver through the driver’s friend and the driver has contacted his family members through his friend and the corpse has been taken away,” the eyewitness said.
The state Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, confirmed the incident.
“We had a case of drowning yesterday in the area,” he simply said.