Businessman Escapes Death By Electrocution In Lagos As PHCN Utility Pole Crashes On His Car

A very lucky businessman Mr. Emmanuel Okolie this evening escaped electrocution after a Power Holding Company of Nigeria PHCN pole fell and crushed his car directly in front of the Sabo police station in Ebute-Metta.

According to police sources at the scene of the accident, a commercial bus driver popularly known as 'danfo' was trying to beat traffic along Herbert Macauley Way and decided to climb the median on the road. In the process he ran into a PHCN pole and crushed it. The pressure from the falling pole pulled a second pillar on, and both of them fell crushing four vehicles and creating a hellish messy traffic situation during the evening rush hour.

The Police source who wants to remain anonymous told SaharaReporters that, "a danfo driver was attempting to beat the traffic log jam by climbing the median. He ran into an electric pole and crushed it and the pressure from the falling pole pulled down a second one, and they both fell on vehicles in traffic". The police source also said that while it was obvious that the driver trespassed traffic rules, some blame should also go to PHCN.

"Oga if you look at that pole you will know it is fake. These are the concrete poles they brought after the recent rain storm that pulled down the old ones. We thought they were good but now that they have been crushed, you can see that the iron rods inside are less than 1cm diameter. The concrete itself from what you can see is sub-standard."

Some of residents who gathered at the scene also accused PHCN of collecting vast sums of money from residents to provide electric poles but always end up bringing sub standard poles that fall off at the slightest pressure.

The danfo driver could not be located as he was said to have abandoned his vehicle and took off obviously for fear of arrest, but the police remained confident that they will eventually get him to face justice.

While the police were frantically working to reduce the traffic congestion that the accident created, the business man Mr. Emmanuel Okolie appealed to the authorities and the police to ensure the errant commercial bus driver was apprehended to face the law and repair the vehicles that were damaged from his recklessness. He also appealed to the government to establish adequate monitoring and ensure that PHCN provides high quality materials for customers to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents in the future.