More bodies recovered from Niger mining pit – Village head

Four more bodies have been recovered from the collapsed mining pit in the Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

The Village Head of Galadima-Kogo, where the incident happened on June 14, Alhaji Umaru Aliyu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday.

Aliyu said four bodies, believed to be the last of the 14 trapped miners, were recovered on Wednesday.

NAN reports that about 14 miners were trapped when the mining pit collapsed on June 14.  Ten victims were earlier brought out dead while a search continued for the rest.

It was learnt that several persons also sustained various forms of injury in the tragic incident.

The village head said the Muslims among the recovered bodies were being prepared for burial while the body of one of the Christians was taken to the IBB Specialist Hospital, Minna mortuary.

Aliyu said, “The bodies of the remaining four miners that were trapped inside the pit have been recovered and their bodies have been deposited in the mortuary in Minna.

“They were two Muslims and two Christians. One of the Christian victims was from Nasarawa State while the other was from Zumba (Shiroro LG).

“The one from Nasarawa; his family has demanded that his body be taken to Nasarawa for burial, while the remaining Christian and the two Muslims will be buried in Minna on Friday,” he said.

Aliyu disclosed that the bodies were recovered through the collaboration between the community and members of staff of African Minerals and Logistics Ltd.

The According reported on Monday that families of the victims are demanding compensation, saying they might resort to legal action.

A relation of one of the dead miners, Suleiman Isah, told The According that 14 miners were buried in the pit out of which nine corpses had been retrieved and buried while the remaining five had yet to be recovered.

“This accident affected one of my brothers. I will just say my blood brother. He was one of my blood brothers. For now, they have already buried nine people and we are still expecting five people from the pit. We have not heard anything from either the company or the state government.

“The day before yesterday was exactly two months since the incident happened in Niger and we have neither heard from the state government nor the company that owns the mining pit.

“We expect them to pay compensation, that is what they should do. We are hearing from some people that the company is going to do something but they are trying to remove those corpses that are remaining in the pit,” Isah said.