Survivor Recounts How Three Teenagers Were Buried Alive In Riverside Pit In Enugu Community

Masters Friday Makuochukwu Nnaji, Anayochukwu Mba and Daniel Izuchukwu Egbuaba, all from Mgbuji, Eha-Amufu, in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State set out to Ebe riverside to dig sand to make some money.

The trio, aged between ten and thirteen, had embarked on the adventure in the hope of making some money.

But they ended up being buried alive in a pit measuring over ten feet. The incident happened on January 28 2022, around 4pm.

Their mode of operation was to dig out sand from already existing pit.

They would carry the sand to particular spots where the buyers would buy the heaps after weighing them.

The only survivor of the incident, Friday, a JSSII student of Union Secondary School, Eha-Amufu, was embarking on the adventure for the first time.

It was gathered that he did not tell his uncle he was staying with about the adventure.

He said, “I wanted to give the money I would make from the business to my mother. I’m not happy how it ended. We were trapped, and my two cousins did not survive. The few heaps of sand we gathered before the incident were also stolen.”

Friday was born on 14th November, 2008. He is the second child in a family of two.

He said, “We started the digging out of the sand around 4pm. There were no adults as most of them had gone. Not up to one hour later, three of us were trapped in the hole. I didn’t know what was on my mind again. But I know I was not breathing anymore. I couldn’t hear any sound. I didn’t also feel the presence of my co-diggers.

“I remember saying, ‘Jesus Christ, if this is how I’ll die, may you accept my soul’. Then my mind just left me. The next place I saw myself was in the hospital.”

Friday was rescued by the villagers, who took him to a hospital where he was resuscitated, treated and discharged.

Friday said, “I’ll never go there again. I’ll advise all my friends never to go to dig sand there again.”

The duo of Anayochukwu and Izuchukwu would not tell their own stories.

One of those that rescued them said, “The first person we dug out was dead already. Friday was the second. He was unconscious. It was in the hospital that he regained his memoires and told us that they were three.

“We rushed back to the scene to rescue the last one. It was already late. Unfortunately, he had suffocated by the time we got to him. It was a gory sight indeed.”

The authorities of the community, to avert such calamities in future, had banned sand mining at Ebe riverside.

Mr Gabriel Chukwuemeka Nnaji, an uncle of the victims and community leader at Mgbuji, said, “We have banned digging of plaster sand on the banks of Ebe river. Anybody that wants to do so should enter the river itself.

“The diggers have destroyed our land. They dig out sand and create underground tunnels that passersby won’t even know they are walking on a hollow land. That is why we banned such operations.

“It is true that our people earn their daily incomes from the riverside. But this incident has opened our eyes to the dangers therein. It is the first time such is happening. The operations are also illegal.

“Friday is living with me. He, alongside the dead, is of the same family. We are still at loss over what happened. We were not aware that they were going there until I was informed about the incident.”

The Ebe River was deserted when our crew visited it.

There was a signpost announcing the closure of all kinds of sand excavation around there.

A few kids were however seen inside a part of the river fetching water.

The ancient river traverses Benue State through Eha-Amufu to Ebonyi State.