Shop owners and residents along Bariga Road, Bajulaiye, Somolu, Lagos have been trying to locate the family of a homeless old man who has been sleeping on a refuse dump in the area since Saturday, Punch reports.
It was learnt from sources that the aged man, whose identity or residence is not known had been lying beside a refuse on Bajulaiye canal, Somolu since the afternoon of Saturday, October 25, 2014.
In the early hours of Tuesday, October 28, 2014, however, the old man who wasn’t able to speak appeared unconscious and so emaciated with shivering hands which perhaps was as a result of hunger.
Some traders in the area acclaimed to have put a call across to the state emergency numbers to remove the man from the site.
One of the eye witnesses identified as Oluyomi, said, “The old man has been sleeping beside the dump since Saturday afternoon. He does not speak Yoruba. His language sounds like Igbo. We don’t know his name or house around here. But now, he cannot even speak again.
“We called the emergency number, 767, and we informed them. But we have yet to see any ambulance coming for him. If the man is not quickly attended to, he may die as he has lain here for three days now.”
Meanwhile, two policemen who were seen inside a Rapid Response Squad van parked near a canal, and were intimated about the incident but they said that they couldn’t do anything to help the dying man until the agencies brought their van to pick him.
Speaking about the development also was an anonymous resident who recalled that the aged man had been wandering around the area for about two weeks before he finally settled at the refuse dump site on Saturday, October 25, 2014.
However, the Lagos state emergency hotline was called and an female official responded and took down the address with an assurance that they would do something about the development.
