TheCable

Afusat Isiaka, mother of three of eight children found in an abandoned car in Lagos, says they didn’t die of suffocation.

TheCable had reported that the children were found dead in a black Honda Pilot parked on Adelayo street, Jah-Michael, along Badagry expressway in Lagos, on Saturday.

Seven of the children were buried on Monday according to Islamic rites.

When TheCable visited the community on Tuesday, the gate of the compound where the children died was closed.

The front of the house where the car was packed

A closer look inside showed that the car is still inside the compound, while the windows of the building within the premises had been vandalised.

Some residents of the community told TheCable that the owner of the abandoned car is dead, and that the car has been parked in the compound for some years.

NO AUTOPSY CONDUCTED

Corpses of seven of the children

TheCable learnt that an autopsy was not conducted on the children before they were buried.

Abdullahi Hassan, an uncle to some of the deceased children, said the family was asked to pay N100,000 per child for the hospital to conduct an autopsy.

Hassan said the family could not afford to pay such huge money, adding that it is “un-islamic” to spend heavily on dead bodies before burial.

‘MY CHILDREN WERE KILLED’

Afusat Isiaka, woman who lost three kids in the incident

Afusat Isiaka, a woman who lost three children in the incident, said the two boys and a girl came back from an Arabic school on Saturday around 2:30pm.

She identified her children as Zainab, Abdulwahab, and Yakubu.

The mother of four said some minutes after they returned from the school, her children went out to play with her neighbours after they had finished eating.

Around 4pm, she said she started to look for them because they were not around the house where they usually played with other children.

Some minutes later, she said a woman who sells provisions in a shop attached to the compound where the incident happened, told her that her children were inside the abandoned car.

The abandoned car

According to her, seven of the eight children inside the abandoned car were lifeless when they were brought out, while foam-like liquid was coming out of their mouths and nostrils.

Afusat insisted that her 12-year-old daughter could have opened the car if truly they were trapped inside, adding that it was not possible for the children to have died of heat within the period of 2:30pm to 4pm.

“Nobody will accept this. We lost seven children (referring to herself and her neighbours). I lost three. I was the one who gave birth to them. The oldest among them is Zainab, 12 years old. Another one would have been five years old this month, and the other one was four,” she said.

“Three children are gone like that. I gave birth to only four. Now, three are gone. They were killed.

“I’m a mother. My children were killed. They killed my children. I was the one who brought them out of the car. Their blood was drained.

“They were dried up when I brought them out of the car. I know my children were killed and dropped inside the car.”

‘I WANT GOVERNMENT TO INVESTIGATE’

Kadijat Rabbani lost two children

Kadijat Rabbani, a woman who lost two girls, said she wants the government to investigate the incident.

“They left the house to play in my neighbour’s house. I was looking for them around 3pm to 4pm before my neighbour told me that my children were inside the abandoned car,” she said.

“I don’t want anybody to beg me. I want government to investigate this incident. How come they died? How many hours did they spend inside the car that caused their death?”

Rabbani’s children, Farida and Aishat, were aged seven and four, respectively.

Two other siblings who died in the incident are Taye and Idowu Ibrahim, aged five and two, respectively.

TheCable was unable to get the name of the eighth child.

See video below.

VIDEO: My children were killed, says mother of 3 kids found in abandoned car pic.twitter.com/Bth6uoa5dO

— TheCable (@thecableng) December 7, 2021