Two youths have died after falling into an underground sewage pit while attempting to evacuate waste from a building in Aba, Abia State. The incident occurred on Sunday night at No.10 Powerline off Omuna Road.

The deceased were contracted by tenants of a three-storey building to carry out the sewage evacuation. Reports indicate that the ladder they were using broke, causing them to fall back into the pit, leading to their deaths.

In response to the tragedy, the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) Aba zone has sealed the building to facilitate a thorough investigation. The Deputy General Manager of ASEPA Aba zone, Okezie Ezengwa, confirmed the incident and expressed sorrow over the loss of the two youths. He attributed the deaths to carelessness and unsafe environmental practices, questioning the use of manual methods for sewage evacuation instead of approved vendors.

“We have been preaching against the use of this manual techniques in evacuating sewage. There are approved vendors, why will you use lander to climb into underground and use buckets to scoop sewage and empty into public drains?” Ezengwa stated.

The bodies of the victims were evacuated to the mortuary. The police have also arrested some tenants in connection with the incident.