Death of 8 children inside car: “We opted to bury our children because officials demanded N.8m for autopsy”

One of the parents of the eight children who died inside a vehicle in Lagos, Mr. Ibrahim Jubrilia, has said he decided not to go ahead with the autopsy because of its cost.

Jubrilia, whose younger brother also lost two daughters, Aisha, 3, and Farida, 9, in the incident said: “They said the autopsy will cost N100,000 for each child. That is N800,000 for the children.

“Unfortunately, I can’t spend N800,000 to investigate the death of our children. So, we requested for their corpses, which we took home and buried after collecting document from the police.”

Jubrilia said: “I don’t want any case because as Muslims, it is forbidden to spend money investigating someone that is dead. We took their corpses to General Hospital, Badagry on Saturday, after police gave us report. At the General Hospital, they said they would transfer their corpses to Ikeja to do autopsy to find out what killed the children. They said the autopsy will cost N100,000 for each child. That is N800,000 for the eight children.”

Recounting the death of the children, Jubrilia said: “I can’t confirm if the children actually died inside the vehicle from suffocation or they were killed and placed inside the vehicle.

“I was called around 4:30p.m. by Mummy Zainab, the woman who lost three children in the incident that I should come and see my children. Before I got there, they have brought out the corpses from the vehicle. They were all lying down on the ground. I saw seven of the children, including my son’s lying on the ground, my heart sanked. I almost collapsed. The eighth child is one of the granddaughters of Saliat Kazeem, who died on the way to the hospital.

“I called the community chairman. They said they want to take them to hospital. When I saw them, I knew they were dead. So, we went to the police station to make statement.”