A twelve-year-old girl, simply known as Blessing, reportedly died
when she fell into a pit latrine at Asin-Ekiti, in Ikole Local Council
of Ekiti State.
A witness, Ruth Bamidele, told the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) yesterday that the deceased was running an errand for her
parents on Monday evening when the incident occurred.
Bamidele
said the girl mistakenly stepped on the rusty and weak concrete that
covered the pit latrine and fell into it with nobody around to rescue
her.
She said her parents raised the alarm on Monday night when
she did not return home and the search for her whereabouts continued
till Tuesday morning.
“One of the neighbours in search of the
missing girl noticed the collapsed lid of the pit toilet in a
residential building situated behind the Alasin palace.
“A
lifeless body was sighted inside the pit and was later brought out; it
was the missing girl and the incident threw the entire community into
mourning,” she said.
It
was learnt that the deceased was in happy mood when her parents sent
her on errand on the day of the incident, unknown that it was a journey
of no return.
Many residents of the community were seen
sympathising with the deceased parents, Rotimi and Helen, who were
wailing uncontrollable.
Meanwhile, the Ikole Local Council has
warned all landlords in the area with uncompleted or damaged pit
latrines to, as a matter of urgency, put them in good shape.
Head,
Environment Department in the council, Tunde Famuyisan, gave the
warning yesterday when reacting to the unfortunate incident that claimed
the life of the innocent girl.
Famuyisan said all sanitary
inspectors in the area have been directed to move from house to house to
ensure that every residential building in the council has functional
toilets, as well as demolish life-threatening pit toilets.
He appealed to residents to give useful information to the council workers, so as to detect houses with unsafe pit toilets.
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