22 years old factory worker with Spring Feeds Limited located in Ikorodu, Adekunle Shokunbi, has lamented how he suffered an industrial accident that made him lose his right hand while working with the company. .
We learnt the boy , alongside other colleagues was working when he attempted to clear the remnants of the animal feeds in the machine used in mixing the products at the company’s factory.
The 22-year-old said his right hand was inside the machine when his colleague, identified only as David, suddenly switched it on, adding that the machine cut his hand.
He said while he was writhing in pain, his colleagues rushed him to the Ijede General Hospital, adding that he lost consciousness when he got to the hospital.
He said, “I was employed as a stockist and at a point when the company was short staffed, it started diversifying and I was directed to supervise workers at the factory.
“I was carrying out my daily duty on April 5 when I suddenly realised that the workload was too much for the available staff members. So, instead of sitting down to just supervise, I assisted the people working at the factory to offload the animal feeds that the machine had mixed into a sack.
“While working, I realised that there were remnants of animal feed inside the machine and decided to clear the remnants with my hand because that has been the way they usually clear remnants in the machine ever since I got there.
“As I was clearing the remnants, one of the staff members, David, switched on the machine while my hand was inside it and the machine cut my hand. I kept shouting that he should put off the machine but he panicked and the machine damaged my right hand severely. My colleagues quickly rushed me to the Ijede General Hospital and when I got there, I lost consciousness.”
Adekunle’s mother, Ajoke, said after her son was stabilised at the Ijede General Hospital, he was transferred to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, from where he was transferred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, where Adekunle’s right hand was cut off during surgery.
The 46-year-old said, “I was at home when his dad called to inform me that a machine had cut my son’s hand. I was shocked. When I got to the hospital, I realised that his right hand had been bandaged so I could not see it properly. It was until we got to LUTH that I realised that he had sustained a very serious injury.
“We have been trying to have a meeting with the managing director of the company, but it has not been successful. She was insisting on meeting us at our house but we were advised to give a neutral ground for the meeting. So, we gave her the address of the neutral ground and when she got there and realised it was not our house, she zoomed off and we have not been able to have a meeting with her since then.”