Bar attendant set ablaze by manager, dies in hospital

isaac

February 16, 2015 10:29 AM

The 13 year old bar attendant who was set ablaze by his manager over a missing N1,500, has died from the burns he sustained in the fire.

The 13-year-old boy, Ezekiel Emmanuel, who was reportedly set ablaze by his manager in the bar in which he was an attendant over a missing N1,500, in Akoka area of Ibafo, Ogun State, has died.

Emmanuel died at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), where he was rushed to after sustaining second degree burns in the attack allegedly master minded by the manager of the bar, Bidemi Shittu who is now on the run and has been declared wanted by the Ogun State Police Command.

Shittu, the manager of Golden Fingers Bar, according to the reports, had realised that the money was missing from the coffers of the bar and he suspected Emmanuel of being the culprit, an allegation the boy denied.

According to the reports, Shittu, a husband and father, on Sunday, February 8, 2015, in a bid to get the boy to confess to the crime, had allegedly tied the teenager's hands and feet and locked him up in a room in the bar till the following day.

At about 11.30pm the next day, Shittu brought Emmanuel out to the front of the bar, poured petrol on the boy and set fire on him.

It was some residents who went to the boy's rescue and he was rushed to about four hospitals that rejected before he was referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Ikeja, Lagos.

But on Sunday, February 15, 2015, the poor boy succumbed to the cold hands of death occasioned by the multiple burns he received.

Emmanuel's uncle, Toyin Olayemi, while speaking to the Punch Newspaper, said they were informed of his death by the police.

"The Ibafo Divisional Police Officer called me on the phone on Sunday that the family should come to the station. It was there that we were told the shocking news of Emmanuel’s demise.

He died on Sunday morning. He did not survive the burns.

On Saturday, his father and I were at the hospital. The doctors and nurses initially prevented us from seeing him, but when the father wanted to make trouble, they let him in for a few minutes.

Emmanuel’s condition was critical. He was burned from the head to the abdomen. Unfortunately, the suspect’s father, Pa Shittu, whose wife was with Emmanuel in the hospital, lied to us that our son’s condition was improving, but it was not."

isaac