Families of the eight children found dead in a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) in Adelayo Street, Jah-Micheal Agunaje area of Badagry Local Government, have been buried amidst tears, barely 24 hours after the tragedy occurred.
The children laid to rest in accordance with Islamic rites by the family were Zainab, Tayab, Farida, Mamod, Yakubu, Wahab, Aisha, and the vehicle owner, Saliat Kazeem’s granddaughter.
As gathered, the parents of the children turned down the suggestion that they conduct an autopsy on the deceased children after the management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba allegedly demanded N100, 000 each as fee for the exercise.
Rather than pay, it was learnt that the parents declined and claimed that it was against the ethics of their religion to subject a deceased body to such and to spend such funds on the deceased.
Before the tragedy, the deceased children were said to have been directed to go for their Arabic classes but they chose to place and found themselves in the vehicle before they locked it on themselves.
A mother who lost three children to the incident, Hafsat Isiaka, narrated that the entire scene was still like a film to her saying, my three children, Abdulwahab Isiaka, Yakub Isiaka, and Zainab Isiaka, who were 11, 5, and 3 years old respectively, were foaming in the mouth by the time they were brought down from the vehicle.
A father, who lost two children to the tragedy, Ibrahim Jubril, said that sympathisers had already recovered the bodies of his children before he got to the scene.
“They said they wan carry them to hospital and me I will be Muslim. We carried them to General Hospital, that same yesterday, police gave us paper, they say they want to transfer us to Ikeja, LUTH. They said each person is N100, 000 to check, that is N800, 000 for eight of them,” the bereaved father added.
It was learnt that Kazeem, the owner of the vehicle, has been arrested and detained by the Area K Police Command in Badagry axis of the state.
The founder of the Society for Youth Advancement and Creativity Initiative (SHACo), Mark Akande, disclosed that the children, whose parents were from Niger Republic, were buried after attempts to conduct an autopsy on them failed.
Akande hinted that the parents took the children to the General Hospital at Badagry, and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where they were told to bring N100, 000 each for the hospital to conduct an autopsy on the children.
“The parents decided not to take them for autopsy at LUTH. They said it is against Islamic laws to spend money on the dead,” Mr Akande added.
