Sallah celebrant dies during drinking competition in Lagos

The Eid el-Kabir celebration was marred in different areas of Lagos yesterday, following the death of two persons.

File photo

Vanguard reports that one of the celebrants collapsed and died during a drinking competition at Orile, Iganmu area of state. The second victim, it was gathered, who was returning from a friend’s home was crushed by a vehicle at Ikeja, on Agege Motorway in his attempt to cross the road.

On the dead drinker, an eyewitness said that he was with some of his friends on Adeyeye Street, where they were competing on who would finish the largest quantity of a local gin, popularly called 

sepe.

The victim, identified as Onyibo, was said to have gulped down 13 small-sized plastic containers of the local gin, while the other eight competitors were on three, four, six and 10 plastics, respectively. He was reportedly on the 14th when he started coughing.

An eyewitness, who gave his name as Kunle Fagba, said:

“He was offered water but he kept coughing and held on to his chest. Before we knew it, he started vomiting blood and then slumped. At that point, everyone was afraid.His friends, who earlier contemplated on taking him to the hospital, abandoned him at his mechanic workshop and fled. One of the competitors even fell while running away.

“We were told they had a bet of N5,000 on whoever could finish 20 plastics of sepe. Some of the plastics were bought from local vendors, while they brought some along with them.”Police Policemen from Orile Division, who were contacted, arrived the scene and removed the body. 

A Police source said:

“One Asimiu reported that a man popularly known as Onyibo was found dead in his shop at Alafia Bus Stop. Onyibo and his friends, mostly touts and street urchins, were seen drinking heavily during the day. 

They were competing on who would finish some bottles of some locally-brewed spirit, popularly called Sepe. From what we gathered, it was during the drinking spree that Onyibo collapsed. His friends, who tried to revive him immediately took him away. 

But when they were unable to bring him back to life, they quickly abandoned him at a workshop and fled for fear of possible arrest by police. We gathered that he (Onyibo) was popular in the area, but no one knows where he came from. We have taken his body away. No member of his family has shown up.”