Photo - Aged man allegedly evicted by landlord found dead in Calabar

 

The corpse of an unidentified man was on Tuesday discovered at St. Patrick College bus stop by Murtala Mohammed Highway in Calabar, Cross River State capital, the Punch is reporting.
Eyewitnesses revealed to the paper that the deceased who appeared in unkempt clothing with his mattress wrapped and kept at a corner, had stayed at the bus stop for four days before his death and had survived on people’s assistance.
One Moses Akan claims that the man believed to be in his late 60’s, before his death, had told him on inquiries that he was forcefully evicted from his rented apartment in the Ikot-Ansa axis of Calabar by his landlord.


     Akan said, “I was passing by this bus stop late last Friday and I saw this old man here. His breathing was smooth. I came again the next day and tried to know about him by asking him what happened and he said his land lord drove him out of his house and brought him here at midnight.
“I asked of his relations and he said one of his sons, Ettekamba, was living at 46 Webber Street. I personally traced the address but nobody by that name was living in the address.
“I later asked where he stayed before been brought here and he mentioned his land lord’s name which I didn’t get well because of how he talked, he said he stayed at Eight Miles, I think off Ikot Omin, opposite Methodist Church.

“He said he would wish to go to the state Housing Estate police station to lay complaints so that they could get the landlord arrested. But by the next day he was found dead,” the witness was quoted to have said.

      The lifeless body of the old man was still at the bus stop as at press time, however, Akan reportedly noted that someone had gone to the Federal Housing Police Station to make a report that an old sane man was lying ill at the bus stop.
“The police did not pick interest in the matter,” Akan said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of Calabar Urban Development Authority, Mr. Joe Ekeng-Ita, confirming the incident said the corpse would be evacuated as soon as necessary documentations were done.
“I just got to know of it, we shall evacuate it very soon. We need to carry out some documentation. But I also urge the council areas in Calabar to take up such responsibility of evacuating corpses, it is not solely our duty alone to evacuate abandoned corpses,” Ekeng-Ita added.