Nine miners die after heavy rain floods Bauchi mining pit
Nine contract miners died after floodwater submerged a mining pit in Nahuta village, Bauchi State, according to the state police. Officers said one victim died after being electrocuted and eight others were later recovered from the pit; the bodies were released to relatives while an investigation continued.
Nine miners died after heavy rainfall flooded a mining pit in Nahuta village, Gwana District, in Bauchi State, according to the state police. Police spokesperson SP Nafiu Habib confirmed the incident to Channels Television. He said the miners were working at Pit Three on September 25 when water entered the site at about 3pm.
Kasim Abdulsalam, the purchase manager of Zurfi Mining Company in Nahuta, reported the incident to police. Some miners were initially rescued, while one victim was electrocuted and taken to General Hospital, Kashere, in Gombe State’s Akko Local Government Area. The victim was confirmed dead at the hospital, Habib said.
The Divisional Police Officer for Alkaleri later led detectives to the site. Three water-pump generators were used to remove water from the pit and support efforts to recover those still trapped, according to the police account. The remaining eight miners were removed from the flooded pit at about 6:20am on September 28 and transported to the same hospital.
A medical doctor confirmed that all eight had died, Habib said. The deceased were identified as Hamidu Ali, Saidu Abubakar and Olije Abdulrazak, who were from Nasarawa and Kogi states; Musa Abdullahi, Abdulrahman Mu’azu and Jafar Abbas, from Bauchi State; Jose Ukese, from Nasarawa State; and Haruna Alkali, from Kebbi State. The material does not assign each named victim to a specific state beyond those groupings.
Police said the corpses were released to relatives after medical examination for burial according to the victims’ respective religious rites. Habib said an investigation into the incident was continuing. The supplied account does not state whether the mining company had received any safety warnings, whether the pit had been inspected before the flooding or whether authorities planned regulatory action.
It establishes that the deaths followed the flooding of an active mining site after heavy rain and that rescue teams used pumps before recovering the remaining victims.
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