Five men electrocuted, four injured, installing Billboard in Port Harcourt

Five men have died and four others hospitalised after nine of them were electrocuted when the billboard they were about to install touched a high tension wire, near the Obiri-Ikwerre flyover along the East-West road today.

At the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, where concerned passersby took the victims, it was gathered that they were private businessmen who were contacted to mount a billboard for a Church along the Rumuosi axis, near the Obiri-Ikwerre flyover.

Some of the victims are welders who fabricate metals at the MCC along Ikwere Road close the Federal Government College, Port Harcourt.

At the time of filing this report, it was not immediately clear if the Rivers State Signage and Advertising Agency, RISSA, an agency that regulates the mounting of Billboards gave it approval.

Our Correspondent reports, however, that mounting Billboards under high tension electric wires is prohibited in the state.

Both the Rivers State Police Command and RISSDA had not spoken on the incident at the time of filing this report.