1 dies, 15 unconscious after an all night prayers via @iKanzee_RR

Aba (Abia) – The Police in Aba, Abia, has
confirmed the death of a four-year-old boy
after an all night prayer in a church on
Saturday morning.
The police, who did not give the name of the
deceased, also confirmed that 15 other
persons were choked during the event.
A group called the “Young People’s Christian
Fellowship, Ututu, Arochukwu’’, were
reportedly made unconscious by fumes from a
generating set used for the all night prayer
meeting.
The police Area Commander, Aba, ACP Peter
Wabara, made this known to newsmen in Aba.
“We got a phone call this morning that some
persons were allegedly lying dead in a church
at 8 Eziukwu road by Milverton Avenue, Aba.
“So I mobilised my men and called in some
doctor friends since the government doctors
were on strike and they accompanied us to the
scene of the event.
“There we looked through the glass door and
found them lying unconscious in a scattered
manner. Fortunately, some of them were
breathing so we moved them to two
hospitals,” he said.
Wabara said that 11 of the worshipers were
evacuated to Austin-Graces hospital on
Okigwe road while four of them were moved to
Goodness and Mercy hospital on Faulks road,
Aba.
According to the commander, before leaving
the scene, the rescue team searched the
church environment and found a generating
set that had exhausted its fuel and quenched
but was still hot.
The commander said that there was a noxious
odour in the air of the warehouse-turned-
church which gave them the impression that
the worshippers may have over-inhaled carbon
monoxide.
He said that he accompanied the Deputy
Governor of the state, Col. Emeka Ananaba
(Rtd) to the hospitals and found that the
persons involved were responding to
treatment.
Wabara also said that the deputy governor
had made a donation of an undisclosed sum
of money.
The money was donated after a meeting with
the Area Commander, the Commissioner for
Health and an assistant medical director, at
Abia State Teaching Hospital, Aba.
Some of the persons brought to Austin-Graces
hospital had recovered and could recognise
people, but were unable to field reporter’s
enquiries during the visit.
Dr Philip Richard, Senior Pastor, Word Alife
Assembly, Aba, the Secretary of pastors from
Arochukwu in Aba, said that the worshippers
were all indigenes of Ututu in Arochukwu local
government area.
“I was not there but I had a phone call telling
me this morning that the believers from Ututu
in Arochukwu who went to pray in a church in
Aba had all died.
“I left all that I was doing to get to the scene
of the event. We have a fellowship of believers
of Ututu origin in Aba and they came to pray
for themselves and their community at this
venue.
“I was not there. They are from various
churches and not from one church. The
husband and wife whose child died are from
my own church,” he said.
Meanwhile, a police source who was among
the rescuers, said that the boy died as a result
of the weight of his heavily-built father which
fell on him when the man became
unconscious.
The source said the child was seating beside
his father and when they became unconscious,
the father unknowingly fell to that side of his
seat, pressing the boy and making breathing
hard for him.
Another source from Ututu, on condition of
anonymity said that the man and his wife had
lost one of their two children last month.
She said that they were left with only the boy
that died at the prayer meeting on July 26.
(NAN)