At least nine illegal miners have been reported to have lost their lives when a mining pit collapsed on them at Dogon Daji village of Maru Local Government Area, Zamfara State.
One of the illegal miners, who gave his name as Shafiu Abdullahi, told the Nigerian Tribune that before the tragedy, the miners would have dug about N2.3 million worth of gold.
He disclosed that the incident occurred around 5.00 a.m. on Tuesday, when the miners were digging at one of the mining sites at Dogon Daji village Abdullahi told the Nigerian Tribune that they were about to observe their morning prayer when some people rushed to the mosque shouting for help.
“We rushed to the mining site and found out that the mining pit had collapsed and there were 10 people buried underground.”
According to him, it took the rescuers more than nine hours to bring out the bodies of the dead miners.
“When we brought them out around 2.00 p.m., nine of them were already dead, except one Mallam Hussaini Maikifi, who was rescued and rushed to the General hospital Maru,” Abdullahi said.
As of press time, it was gathered that the illegal miners had deserted the site.
Thursday, 08 November, 2012 at 04:06 (04:06 AM) UTC RSOE
Goaty's News (UK) 