On Thursday the 29th of December, 2016, Late Chika Alex-Etuk was like any other Nigerian. On that fateful morning her intentions was to visit Airtel office at 11, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, Lagos State to obtain and register a new Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) for her phone and to take her 2 children ages 6 and 7 years with her friend who came on a visit from South Africa for shopping at a local shoprite mall Surulere.

At around 1pm Nigeria time, Chika was in Airtel premise and she was asked to fill out a form by Airtel staff which she did, immediately she was usher by one of the Airtel staff to stay in a position to take a photograph which was one of the requirements for the SIM registration.

As she stepped to area directed by the staff, the tiled floor on the spot where she stood caved in, Chika fell into a sinkhole and her left leg got stuck there up to her knee.

She sustained multiple lacerations to her lower leg, cuts around her thigh and went into shock from the severe pain and loss of blood. Her children where traumatized by the incident which has now affected them mentally and physically.

Her Children were not shielded from the scene, they watched in horror as a chunk of their mothers flesh laid on the ground while she yelled out, for hours, in pain. The first son now (age  has developed breathing problem, he is not able to sleep well, while the second son (age 6) is always in and out of hospital, not able to communicate or play with other children.

The incident plus the death of their mother has left the two boys severely traumatized, especial the six year old son who is always afraid to sleep at night because  he wakes up sweating, screaming and calling out for the mum (with tears) to come back home.

When one of our correspondence visited the family, the deceased six (6) years old son said he told the mother not to go out on that particular day.

As we gathered that the response of Airtel was practically non-existent when the accident occured. They all first ran out of the building  according to on lookers, few minutes Later they came back sporadically, they just stood there and watched she laid in pain – some even ran away without looking back.

Eventually, the late Mrs Chika Alex Etuk was taken to a near by hospital by her friend and other sympathisers where she was refused treatment because they could not handle the severity of the bleeding and injuries. She was immediately rushed to St. Claire’s Hospital in Surulere, Lagos – the staff of Airtel Network did not make any attempt to rush her to a hospital or offer help in any way.

She was later admitted to the Emergency Ward of National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos state, after a long stay in pain and agony at Orthopaedic hospital, she later died on the 30th of January, 2017 after a surgery was carried out on her leg as a result of the injury she suffered in Airtel’s property, due to their instructions.

The incidents that took Place in the premises of Airtel Network, which lead to the death of late Mrs Etuk, were preventable if not for the gross negligence of Airtel Network and their lack of human empathy. This was corporate manslaughter.

To rob salt to the injury, Airtel Limited offered Three Million naira (£7000 pounds) to Late Chika’s family as compensation so that the news will not go public. Mrs Chika Etuk was the bread winner of her family, which Airtel Limited was made aware but they choose to make a mockery of her death knowing so many people who depended on her including her two young handsome boys and aged mother.

The Fourty three (43) years Late Mrs Chika Alex Etuk was a member of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), a chucrh worker in the We Care Ministy department of trem, a faithful wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, aunty, a giver and true christian.

We learnt that Airtel Network do not take reasonable duty of care to make sure their customers are safe when they visit their premises.

Airtel Limited, we gathered, has done nothing but offer empty words of fake condolence in a series of letters in order to prevent a law suit.

Now two children of the ages 6 and 8 are left without a mother because of their callousness.

They further insulted the family by offering them THREE MILLION NAIRA ONLY (£7000) to cover up the story, even though Airtel is a multi billion dollar company.