At least four persons have been confirmed dead after a mining pit collapsed in Ningi Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
The unfortunate incident reportedly occurred in Yadagungume community in Burra district on Saturday.
The spokesman of the Bauchi State Police Command, SP Ahmed Wakil said in a phone interview that the command received a distress call on the said date when a Samaritan reported the incident.
He said upon receiving the report, the Divisional Police Officer in Ningi mobilised his men to the location of the mining site, where the corpses of the victims were evacuated and taken to a nearby hospital.
He identified the deceased as Ibrahim Munkaila, 20, of Dirbunde village, Takai Local Government Area of Kano State; Yakubu Ahmadu, 22, of the same address; Kabiru Yau, 20, of Yadagungume village in Burra; and Auwalu Hashimu, 17, also from Yadagungume.
“They were mining at a local mining site where, in the process of digging out lead ore, one of the mineral resources common in the area, the pit collapsed and the four of them died instantly,” he said.
Also speaking via phone interview, the caretaker chairman of Ningi Local Government Area, Ibrahim Zubairu, described the tragedy as most unfortunate.
He said: “I don’t know about the illegal activities of the locals because we have banned all sorts of illegal mining in the entire local government area. It came to me as a surprise when I got the report of the incident.”
The chairman added that he has constituted a committee tasked with curbing illegal mining activities and land-related matters and has also directed the Burra Divisional Police Officer to oversee the illegal mining sites.
It will be recalled that two women were also killed and three others injured when a mining pit collapsed on them at Bar Kudu village, Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State, on April 28, 2023.
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