Expdonaloaded News; Mudslide tragedy: Family homeless, wife hospitalised

The travails of Mr Okeoseye Odia, the policeman who lost four sons to a mudslide in Lagos, last Saturday, are far from over, three days after the tragedy that changed his life occurred.
Already, Odia and his family have been rendered homeless since the incident.
Expdonaloaded blog learnt that Odia, his two wives and five remaining children now sleep in the open.
Indeed, anguish and pain are twin emotions that still run high in the home of the Edo State-born Okeoseye Odia.
Saturday, November 7, would remain indelible in Okeoseye’s mind because, according to him, the day, which started for him at 4:30am, never held any foreboding that it would end in disaster and tragedy.
Okeoseye recalled that on the fateful day, he was the first in the family to get out of bed. He subsequently had his bath and from there, moved to the sitting room to comb his hair. Then, disaster struck.
The mudslide, which changed his life forever, happened in the twinkling of an eye. And, in one fell swoop, Okeoseye had lost four of his nine male children.
Okeoseye recalled that, had it been the mudslide happened some minutes before, he would have been buried in it. But he escaped.
His children did not. Four of them: Sayo (23), Dasilva (15), Clinton (13) and Endurance  (10), were all fast asleep when tragedy struck.
To Okeoseye, it was an unimaginable disaster. He would have preferred that death took his life rather than the lives of his four children who looked to the future with promises of what could have been.
When Expdonaloaded blog visited his residence at No 50, Otun Araromi Street, Orisa-Magodo, situated on a valley behind Magodo Estate in Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, Okeoseye was surrounded by family members who trooped in from his native Edo State. There were also friends and well-wishers who gathered to console him over the death of his four sons.
Following an early morning rainstorm on Saturday, November 7, a fence of a building from Magodo Estate allegedly collapsed and the debris, mixed with the force of rainwater and mud, surged into the house and collapsed the room where the four children slept and buried them alive.
When Expdonaloaded blog approached Okeoseye on Monday for more insight into the incident, he declined to speak, saying that he had been speaking since the incident and that further comments would force him to relapse into uncontrollable tears.
He said that as a routine, Mr. Odia was used to waking up early in the morning to prepare for the day’s activities. “So, on that fateful Saturday, he woke up early in the morning as usual, went into his bathroom to take a morning shower and as soon as he left the bathroom and entered his sitting room to comb his hair, the incident happened. The room where the four boys were sleeping was invaded by the surging debris from the collapsed fence from a building in Magodo Estate and the four boys were buried in the mud,” Solomon narrated amidst tears.
Mr. Odia, it was gathered, had been living happily with his nine sons and two wives in a three-bedroom apartment until the ill-fated incident of that Saturday morning.
Looking at the building and the impact of the incident, one could see that it was only the room where the four boys slept and the bathroom which was adjacent to it that were submerged by the mud. The mudslide simply forced its way into the room and buried the boys in their sleep.
When Expdonaloaded blog got there yesterday, about four Hausa men were busy packing the mud from the room, while those who came to sympathise with Mr. Odia’s family gathered in groups, lamenting over the incident.
Odia’s brother, Solomon, described one of the dead children, 15-year-old Dasilva, as a very brilliant boy. He said the boy was so brilliant in school that he would never accept a second position.
“The 15-year-old Dasilva no dey drag first position in school with anybody. The only time he took a second position in his class, he strongly protested against it, describing the action of his teacher as fraudulent. And since that incident, he had always taken first position in his class. He was such an intelligent boy, but look at how we lost him,” he said.
Describing the incident that happened, Solomon further said: “There is no man who will not cry if what happened to my brother happens to him; you must cry when you see this. You no fit carry the kind pains wey my brother dey carry now; you no fit carry am. Four children in one day; you no fit carry am. No ear will hear this without tingling and no eyes will see it without shedding tears. Four children and all na boys; no, you no fit. It is just too much.”
Mr Odia, according to his younger brother, Solomon has nine children – all boys. He’s now left with five following the death of the other four.
When our reporter sought to speak with his wives, he was told that one was at an undisclosed hospital where she is being attended to after the shock of losing her two children in the incident. The second wife, who also lost two sons was seated in the midst of sympathizers, looking lost. She was not in a position to speak. She was lost in thought; just looking straight into empty air.
Right now, Mr. Odia is homeless. He and his family members do not have anywhere to go. According to his younger brother, “they sleep outside for now.”