The Amuwo-Odofin community has been thrown into a state of chaos, anger, and sadness as a man has been confirmed dead which has led to a disruption in activities of the popular Mall in Amuwo-Odofin.
Festaconline Media gathered that on the evening of the 20th of September 2022, The Genesis cinema, at Festival Mall, Amuwo-Odofin had a fumigation exercise to get rid of cockroaches, rats, and rodents on their premises.
After the fumigation, the cinemas were closed to allow for the effect to wear out.
The next day, 21st September 2022 Wednesday, the employees in the Festac Branch were waiting till the Manager came in and instructed the employees to start working knowing that the fumigation effect and not yet cleared out totally.
One of the hardworking staff, Chuks as he is fondly called, complained that he couldn’t go in because of his health condition, an asthmatic patient but the manager insisted that he must join the rest to start working and clean up, after much back and forth the deceased obliged reluctantly.
Not long as he got inside, tragedy hit at about 11:45 am as he started choking and gasping for breath, he ran out of the cinema still choking and coughing for some minutes, this situation caused chaos till he passed out. No immediate medical aid was known to have been given at the time of this writing.
Some persons were said to have been recording the situation, some customers, and some staff while he was still breathing faintly and gasping for breath, till he finally gave up.
A source who spoke to Festaconline Media claimed that some concerned colleagues could not prevail on the manager to help Chuks to the hospital for medical attention, as claimed there was no money, and that he would get himself with time.
After he passed out, Chuks was taken to different hospitals and was rejected in three of them before arriving at the fourth which accepted him and confirmed he was already dead.
It was known that the deceased was a staff of the ShopRite supermarket chain before switching jobs to Genesis cinemas.
According to another source, His body was taken to the back of the mall but the employees in other outlets refused and carried his body back into the cinemas where he worked.
This caused Festival Mall to close on Wednesday and Thursday and according to the source the employees in the outlets protested against the incident and marched into the cinema to look for the manager but she was nowhere to be found. As of this time of reporting, the manager has not been able to be reached.
Immediately after the incident, someone from the mall contacted his family members and they trooped into the festival mall in their numbers including his immediate family members and friends to destroy the cinemas and find the manager.
The boys that came had already started causing damage and disrupting activities in the mall before security agencies stepped in.
According to a trader near the complex, he said that gunshots were heard fired in the air to scare the boys/people that came in to look for the manager and cause havoc.
This caused the total lockdown of the entrance into the complex which houses Festival Mall, Festival Hotel, and the Residences from both gates due to the destruction that happened.
His body was still at the mall on Wednesday before the police closed both entrances of the complex, there was no thoroughfare as there was very limited access inside, and no one was allowed to go in or come out. The whole mall was shut down.
Still, on the matter, Yesterday at around mid-afternoon, some group of people came again trying to gain access to destroy the cinema and was repelled by the Opmesa and army personnel.
The cinema sent messages to their clients and customers that they wouldn’t be open for the weekend because of an incident that happened at their outlet.
As at this time of filing its report, efforts to reach the manager or speak to someone from the cinemas proved abortive while the case is currently under investigation by the police.
We await more updates from the police and concerned parties.
May his soul Rest in Peace.