BODIES OF EBONYI APC YOUTH LEADER & TWO POLICE OFFICERS RECOVERED FROM ABANDONED MINING PIT

Reporter : AMECHI ODO

Three dead bodies and a Golf Car with registration number EBONYI CHR 85 AE have been recovered from a deep pond in a mining pit at Enyigba axis of Abakaliki-Ikwo road in Ebonyi State. The dead bodies were that of the Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, Mr. Ogochukwu Elem, and two armed police officers.

An eyewitness had told journalists that they were in the Golf car travelling to Ikwo Local Government Area for an event when it veered off the road and plunged into the abandoned open mining pit.

Governor David Umahi and the Commissioner of Police in the State, Mr. Aliyu Garba, supervised the recovery operation that lasted for three days.

Speaking at the event, Governor Umahi described the incident as a supreme sacrifice and gave his Chief of Staff and Supervising Commissioner for Solid minerals, Chief Samuel Okoronkwo one week to identify all abandoned mining pits within the axis for sand filling.

A youth Leader from Ikwo who was among the sympathisers at the scene, Comrade Nelson Nwali, said the people of the area had been devastated by the incident and called on the government to monitor the activities of miners to ensure that used mining pits were covered.