HOW can two grown men die at the same time in an alleged swimming accident?
That is the question on the minds of the families and friends of Richard Dada and Odion Imhonbhio, following the tragic report they heard of the death of the two young men on the night of September 9 in a swimming pool on the property of Chinese Group of Companies, in Ikeja, Lagos State.
According to the report made to the Nigeria Police officials, Mr. Dada and Mr. Imhonbhio had gone for a swim in the swimming pool of the establishment for which they worked on the said night, only to turn up dead of an alleged swimming accident.
Both men were not unfamiliar with swimming, said their family members, raising suspicion in their mind that there was some deadly foul play somewhere.
One of the men, according to a family member, bled from the nose, ears and mouth.
“What kind of swimming accident causes a person to bleed from the ear, nose and mouth?” asked Mathew Imhonbhio, brother to Odion Imhonbhio, aged 21.
“I am very suspicious of the whole thing,” he added, saying that it was “impossible for the two of them to die at the same time.”
Mathew Imhonbhio admitted that his brother was a moderate swimmer, but said the other man, Richard Dada, was a very good swimmer who couldn’t have drowned in a swimming pool so easily.
The men had left for the swimming pool around 9pm that night, and their lifeless bodies were not recovered until the next morning.
A family member of the late Dada said that the men had worked for the company for at least two years. Other family members questioned why the company’s management offered to pay the families of the deceased the sum of half a million naira, even as investigations into the matter had barely commenced.
Hostile security personnel present at the premises refused to grant access to an investigated reporter from sharpedgenews.com on Wednesday, September 19, and refused to respond to enquiries about the whereabouts of the management.
Efforts at independent inquiries from the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Ms. Ngozi Braide, proved abortive, as she was not available to receive phone calls to her.