Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Gabriel Osa
In a tragic incident that has shaken the Enyim Agalegu community in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria, at least three people have died and four others sustained injuries after a mining pit suddenly collapsed on Saturday afternoon. Relatives, neighbours and rescuers described the scene as heart-wrenching, with frantic efforts to save trapped workers giving way to the grim reality of loss.
The disaster occurred at around 4 p.m., when the earth gave way on a deep excavation at a site reportedly operating under a mining lease held by First Patriots Limited, a company formerly known as Royal Salt. According to local leaders, the collapse buried several miners under heavy earth and rubble, leaving them unable to free themselves.
Residents of Enyim Agalegu, armed with shovels and makeshift tools, rushed to the site upon receiving a distress call, trying desperately to dig through the fallen overburden — the loose soil and rock that had tumbled down. “We evacuated some overburden on top of some lifeless people,” said Oboke Chukwuma Collins, national chairman of the community federated union, describing how three corpses were recovered. “We also rescued about four others who were injured.”
The injured were taken to medical facilities for treatment, though details on their conditions remain limited. Some victims suffered broken limbs and lacerations, while others were treated for shock and exhaustion after hours working under debris.
What made the collapse particularly painful for locals was the belief that it might have been preventable. Community leaders said they had previously petitioned both the mining company and the Ebonyi State Ministry of Solid Minerals to hand over part of the site for controlled, safer mining by local residents once formal commercial operations were completed. Those requests, they say, were rebuffed, even as informal mining activities persisted at the site.
The tragedy also appears to be part of a pattern in the area; Collins noted that this latest loss pushed the number of deaths at this particular pit to five over time, implying that previous accidents had occurred at the same location.
Officials from the state government expressed sorrow and concern but cautioned against attributing blame before investigations are completed. Chidi Onyi, Commissioner for Solid Minerals Development in Ebonyi, described the incident as “unfortunate” and extended condolences to the families of the deceased. He said recurring collapses in mining communities often stem from illegal or unregulated mining practices, which can leave pits unstable and vulnerable to sudden failure.
Onyi maintained that the government was not aware the pit had been abandoned or that unauthorized artisanal mining was taking place there, noting that the federal and state governments still consider the site under lease to First Patriots Limited. “This site belongs to First Patriots,” he said, adding that any requests to release it for local mining had to respect formal legal frameworks.
A legislator representing Ikwo North Constituency confirmed the recovery of the bodies and the hospitalization of the injured, indicating that authorities had been notified promptly and had begun documenting the incident.
The heartbreak in Enyim Agalegu has reopened painful debates about the safety and regulation of mining activities in rural Nigeria. In many states, pits are often carved deep into the earth without sufficient engineering safeguards. Soil instability, especially where heavy rains have saturated the ground, can make such excavations dangerously prone to collapse. Across Nigeria’s mining belts, such incidents — sometimes linked with illegal or artisanal mining — have cost dozens of lives in recent years, underscoring chronic weaknesses in oversight and enforcement of safety standards.
For many families in the community, mining remains one of the few means of earning a living, especially where formal employment opportunities are scarce. But with weak regulation and oversight, workers often take grave risks in exchange for modest gains. Activists and local leaders are now calling for stronger enforcement of safety protocols, clearer communication between companies and host communities, and accountability for operators to prevent future tragedies.
Officials are expected to launch a formal investigation to determine the exact cause of the collapse, including whether basic safety measures were neglected and whether the legal responsibilities of the mining leaseholder were upheld. In the meantime, the lives lost on Saturday linger in the memories of neighbours, relatives, and rescuers who struggled to pull their loved ones from the earth that betrayed them.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments