Chinyere Orj the imother of 35 year old medical doctor, Allwell Orji who jumped to his death on 3rd mainland Lagoon, has refused to believe that her son is dead.
A relative of the deceased who spoke to newsmen at the family’s home at Abujle-Ijesha in Yaba, Lagos state, said Mrs Orji who is a retired banker, has refused to believe that her son who is the first of three children, is dead.
She is still hoping that he would be rescued.
“You people don’t know what we have been through since the incident. Please, respect our grief. This is not a case of a grandfather that died and we want to celebrate it.
This whole issue has been difficult for us. The mother is up there, not talking to anyone. Not even us who are very close relatives.
People have been around her since the incident so that she doesn’t do anything drastic.
She is yet to accept that he could be dead. She doesn’t even accept people’s sympathies and condolences.
As a Christian, she’s believing God that a miracle could happen and that her son won’t die.
She believes he’s just missing and would return alive”he said
Meanwhile efforts to recover his body from the lagoon has proved abortive as men of the Lagos State Emergency Mangement Authority are still searching the lagoon for his remain.
LASEMA’s General Manager, Adesina Tiamiyu who was at the scene said, he is not aware of any suicide note dropped by the deceased.
“We are still searching for the body. We have expanded the search to go further than the point it happened.
We have told local men around to watch out for any floating body and we have engaged local divers to look around for us.
Patrol boats are in the water going round. We would continue to search for him.
The family is traumatised at this point and unwilling to speak on the issue. I want us to respect their wishes please.
We have established contact with the family and expressed government’s sincere wishes to them. We would also go back at a time they feel better because we would like to know what happen so that Lagosians and Nigerians can learn a lesson or two from it.
