A 12-year-old girl identified only as Ganiyat, died after she mistakenly shot herself dead while playing with an old dane gun which her grandfather left inside an Ogun shrine for about seven years in Alangua area of Tanke, Ilorin, Kwara State.
After the man identified as Baba Ria, a devotee of Ogun passed away, there was no one to offer sacrifices to the god, hence the abandonment of the gun all the years.
The incident played itself out on Saturday, September 5, 2015 when the girl, went into the abandoned shrine and picked the dane gun which has not been in use for years and while playing with it, reportedly shot herself dead.
Narrating the sad incident, a source who resides in the area said, the mother of the girl who happened to be the late Ogun worshipper’s daughter, had brought the child to visit her grandmother who lives alone.
The source said: “Ganiyat’s mother came to pay a visit and this happened after her departure. The kids live here with their grandmother but early that morning, Ganiyat, who was playing with her peers, suddenly asked others to go away while she ran into the abandoned Ogun shrine in a room belonging to Baba Ria, a hunter and worshiper of Ogun.
“The gun has been in the shrine since the man died seven years ago. No one knows what was happening, until a deafening roar from a gun alerted everyone around 11.35 am.
“We ran out only to see Ganiyat in her pool of blood with her eyes bulging out. Our neighbours rushed her to a nearby Group Medical Centre, Tanke, where she was confirmed dead.”
Confrmng the ncdent, the state Police spokesperson, DSP Ajayi Okasanmi, said that they have launched an investigation while the gun had been seized by the policemen.
Also, some men living in the compound had been arrested with a view to finding out why they had kept the gun for that long after the owner had died.
