Lagos State Govt. shuts Chinese firm where 14-year old boy was electrocuted

The Lagos State Safety Commission on Wednesday shutdown a Chinese firm, Cheng-Fa Nigeria Limited over poor safety standard after a 14-year old boy was electrocuted as he was operating a machine.

Officials of the commission stormed the company situated at Obasa Road in Ikeja area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria and were amazed of the poor safety standard and shut it.

Joseph Ekwenobe, 14 was electrocuted while pouring materials into a faulty machine belonging to the firm, an action that led to a protest by workers of the company.

Director General of the Commission, Hakeem Dickson led members of the agency to seal up the company, as a result of poor safety standard, saying that the company acted contrary to the law of the state which said a company must put safety standard in place if over five people were employed.

According to him, the company engaged in poor house keeping with lots of hazard detected, saying that the company had to be ISO certified before it could be opened.

Dickson ordered the closure of the company immediately after inspection showed that it never complied with safety standard for the safety of workers.

He said the attention of the state government was drawn to the company following the electrocution of the 14-year old boy.

Reports after inspection of the company by staff of the commission showed that there were lots of electrical infractions as people were working in an unsafe environment, a stuffy factory, poor wiring of cables, use of unskilled labour, among others.

Counsel to the company, Tomilade Shodimu, said the company never knew that the boy was underage as he lied about it, saying that the company had put correctional measures in place to avert future occurrence.

However, workers of the company had protested after the boy was electrocuted lon 31 May, 2019, accusing the management of being indifferent to the plight of workers, saying that the machine developed a fault three days earlier and had electrocuted some workers before killing Joseph.

The workers, who had lamented the poor working condition in the firm, also complained about their take home pay, which they noted was nothing compared to the number of hours they put.