A middle-aged man has been crushed to death while working as part of a team hired to demolish a house in Lagos, South-West Nigeria.

Mr. Peter Anionwe, who managed a barber’s shop in Alagbole, a Lagos suburb, went to work as a labourer to make extra cash but never lived to tell the story.

News Express learnt that Mr. Anionwe, 39, became friends with a man who recently bought an old house at No. 8, Adeola Street (almost opposite his shop) and decided to demolish and rebuild it.

“He was the one to whom the buyer of the house gave the keys to keep. He would open the place for the workers each day and collect the keys for safe-keeping at the end of the day’s work,” a source close to the late Mr. Anionwe told News Express.

The source said that Mr. Anionwe later approached the contractor handling the demolition job and requested to be hired as one of the labourers.

“He was demolishing a portion of the house last week Tuesday (May 7) when it fell on him and crushed him. He was rushed to a hospital in nearby Ojodu but was pronounced dead,” the source said.

Work has since stopped on the house and the gates were securely locked when News Express visited.

News Express learnt that the body of Mr. Anionwe, who is survived by a son, has been taken to his hometown in Enugu, South-East Nigeria, for burial in keeping with the Igbo tradition of not burying their people in a foreign land.

His brother, Mr. Uche Anionwe, told News Express: “I have lost my brother – the only one. It is a sad day for all of us.”

•Photo by Rukevwe Onoharigho shows the premises where Mr. Peter Anionwe died under lock and key.