A 27-year-old man, simply identified as Mu’azam, was trapped to death inside a mining pit at Gurfata village in Dobi ward of Gwagwalada area council.
A resident of the area said the incident happened around 12; 23 pm when the deceased was inside one of the pits digging out sand to search for gold, and part of the pit suddenly collapsed on him.
He said the deceased earlier came out of the pit to find out from his colleagues whether it was time for prayers before the incident occurred, but later went back inside the pit to continue digging.
“He actually came out earlier and even asked some of his colleagues if it was time for Juma’at prayers, and was told that it was not yet time. He went back inside the pit to continue digging,” he said.
According to him, some of the colleagues waited for the deceased to come out so that they would go to observe the Juma’at prayers, but they couldn’t see him coming out from the pit.
“So it was there one of them now checked and discovered that the deceased was trapped inside the pit. And before they would bring him out, he was already dead,” he said.
He said the remains of the deceased were later buried according to Islamic rites on the same day by members of the Hausa community in the area.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the FCT police command, ASP Maryam Yusuf, said the command was not aware of the incident, but said she would enquire from the police division in the area and get back to our reporter.
