Tragedy struck at a sleepy Obimo community
in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu
State ,Tuesday, when two sand miners were
trapped to their untimely death while loading a
tipper lorry at a mining site.
While one of the victims, Emmanuel Ugwuoke,
was confirmed dead on arrival by the
management of Faith Foundation Hospital in
Nsukka metropolis, the second victim,
identified as Onyemaechi was still trapped in
the sand at the time of filing this report.
The driver of the lorry was also severely
injured and was rushed to Enugu city for
ultrasound checks.
Vanguard gathered that while the victims were
digging a hill located at Eka-Utara Obimo for
sharp sand, part of it caved-in and trapped them.
At the Faith Foundation Hospital, some of the
co-labourers mostly in their early 20s could
not control their emotion as they cried
uncontrollably when the remains of Ugwuoke
was taken from the hospital for burial at his
country home, Ajuona, also in Obimo.
While reacting to the development, one of the
labourers, Sunday Okoro told Vanguard that he
could not believe that Ugwuoke who was
discussing with him in the morning before the
incident was gone from the face of the earth,
describing the incident as”mother of all
tragedies.”
He further alleged that the hill where the
incident happened is possessed with evil spirit
which claims lives of the labourers on a yearly
basis, saying “it is not up to six months that
village elders appeased the spirit with a cow
because they learned that it was threatening
to take two lives. I am surprised that this
happened even after the rituals.”
Similarly, two labourers were allegedly
electrocuted in a Chinese charcoal factory,
Okwo-Chief, which is just a stone-throw from
where the mining mishap happened.
Though, information made available to
Vanguard were sketchy, a labourer in the
factory who pleaded for anonymity said the
victims were removing charcoal from one the
ovens used in burning woods into charcoal
when electrical complications occurred,
leading to their immediate demise.
Vanguard gathered that Okwo-Chief, is
notorious for deforestation and cheap labour.
The labourers earn N1,000 after off-loading
charcoal from an oven amidst thick smoke
and other attendant health challenges.
Some of the female labourers in the factory
were alleged to have taken to prostitution in
order to make ends meet.
