Sallah celebrant dies during "sepe" drinking competition in Lagos

The Eid el-Kabir celebration was marred in
different areas of Lagos yesterday, following the
death of two persons.
Vanguard reports that one of the celebrants
collapsed and died during a drinking competition
at Orile, Iganmu area of state.

The second victim,
it was gathered, who was returning from a
friend’s home was crushed by a vehicle at Ikeja,
on Agege Motorway in his attempt to cross the
road.

On the dead drinker, an eyewitness said that he
was with some of his friends on Adeyeye Street,
where they were competing on who would finish
the largest quantity of a local gin, popularly called
sepe.

The victim, identified as Onyibo, was said to have
gulped down 13 small-sized plastic containers of
the local gin, while the other eight competitors
were on three, four, six and 10 plastics,
respectively.

He was reportedly on the 14th when
he started coughing.
An eyewitness, who gave his name as Kunle
Fagba, said:
“He was offered water but he kept
coughing and held on to his chest. Before
we knew it, he started vomiting blood and
then slumped. At that point, everyone was
afraid.

His friends, who earlier contemplated on taking
him to the hospital, abandoned him at his
mechanic workshop and fled. One of the
competitors even fell while running away.
“We were told they had a bet of N5,000
on whoever could finish 20 plastics of
sepe. Some of the plastics were bought
from local vendors, while they brought
some along with them.”
Police Policemen from Orile Division, who were
contacted, arrived the scene and removed the
body.

A Police source said:
“One Asimiu reported that a man
popularly known as Onyibo was found
dead in his shop at Alafia Bus Stop.
Onyibo and his friends, mostly touts and
street urchins, were seen drinking heavily
during the day.

They were competing on who would finish
some bottles of some locally-brewed
spirit, popularly called Sepe. From what
we gathered, it was during the drinking
spree that Onyibo collapsed. His friends,
who tried to revive him immediately took
him away.
But when they were unable to bring him
back to life, they quickly abandoned him at
a workshop and fled for fear of possible
arrest by police. We gathered that he
(Onyibo) was popular in the area, but no
one knows where he came from. We have
taken his body away. No member of his
family has shown up.”