The man simply called Eddy fell off while trying to pluck pear from a big pear tree at the back of their house.
Eddy, who hails from Biase and lives with his elder brother, a serving permanent secretary with the Cross River State Government at House 2, J Line Federal Housing Estate, fell off the tree when he climbed it to pluck the fruit for Vicky, his girlfriend, who came to visit him.
An eyewitness told P.M.NEWS how the tragedy occurred: “He was at home last Wednesday afternoon after the school vacated last week and Vicky, his girlfriend, called to say she was coming to the house. When she came she saw that quite a number of the pear fruits were ripe and ready for plucking and she asked Eddy if he could get some for her and he obliged.”
The source further said since the pear tree is a very big one there is a ladder with which anyone who wanted to climb would place on the stem to reach the branches from where he could get the fruits.
“But this time, the heavy rainfall in Calabar had caused the stem of the pear tree to be wet and slippery so when he had climbed to a point, the ladder slipped off from the stem and he came crashing to the ground,” said the source.
Our source said the teacher fell with his forehead hitting the ground, causing his forehead to swell to the size of a man’s fist within seconds of the crash.
“The man managed to drive his pick up van to hospital but when he got opposite Senator Ita Giwa’s gate, he became too dizzy and pulled up by the side of the road and one of his brothers had to drive him to hospital where he later died.”
A doctor at the General Hospital, Calabar said Eddy died from hemorrhage in his brain. His body was deposited at the hospital’s mortuary.
In a separate report, five teachers have been remanded in prison for allegedly smuggling examination answers to students sitting for the West African School Certificate Examination, WASCE, at a Lagos centre. The five school teachers were arraigned before a Lagos court.
The teachers are Ikechukwu Martin,27, Olaoye Sunday, 31, Innocent Abbey, 24, Egbogoh Obehi, 29, and Olalere Olalekan.They were alleged to have smuggled prepared answer sheets to WAEC students, into the examination hall at Jeno Grammar School Itire- Ikate Lagos. The papers they smuggled include English Language 1 with serial number S3021, Mathematics and Economics.
The papers had prepared answers for the students to copy. Luck ran out on them when the security personnel at the hall saw them and immediately arrested and took them to the SCID Yaba, Panti, Lagos.
They were charged to court for aiding examination malpractice under section 322 of the criminal code Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011. They pleaded not guilty.
The presiding Magistrate, Mrs. M. O. Olajuwon granted them bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum. The matter was adjourned till 10 October, 2012, while they were remanded in prison custody until they meet their bail conditions.
—Emma Una/Calabar & Cyriacus Izuekwe