The Rivers State Government House was thrown into a mourning mood on Saturday, Nov 3 following the shocking death of one of the security drivers to the states first lady, Dame Judith Amaechi.
The deceased, Ibiba Jack, in his early forties, was electrocuted while trying to rescue another staff of the Government House who was trapped in a naked wire while mowing the grass on sanitation day.
Witnesses said Ibiba used his leg to disentangle the man who was already struggling with a current from a naked wire which entrapped the mower blade that he was using to cut the grass, but unknown to him, he was already standing on a live wire which got him electrocuted instantly.
Confirming the sad incident, the Chief of Staff, Rivers State Government House, Chief Tony Okocha who described the death of the convoy driver as “unfortunate” attributed the cause to “carelessness”. Okocha confirmed that the late driver merely went to help the man who was cutting the grass when he stepped on a naked wire.
“People can just cause problems to themselves unnecessarily. They stepped down a naked wire from the wall and that is what caused the death”, Okocha said. He said that light was not connected in all the flats in the new Government House Staff quarters built by Amaechi, a situation that prompted some residents to look for an alternative way of connecting light from any source.
The Chief of Staff who went straight to the Teaching Hospital where the survivor of the electric accident was rushed to, confirmed that Ibiba’s charred body had been deposited in the mortuary.
Some witnesses who spoke on grounds of anonymity blamed the death of the governor’s wife’s aide on the contractors who handled the electrification project of the quarters, noting that if they had done their work thoroughly, “Ibiba would not have lost his life”. “The contractors were careless and should rather be blamed for his death”, one of them argued.