Dons Eze
THREE SCAVENGERS DIE AT HOLY GHOST ENUGU DEMOLITION SITE
About three people are said to have died so far at the demolition site for the proposed Enugu Central Station along Ogui-Market Road in the Enugu North Council Area of the state.
The deceased, who were said to be scavengers, were reported to have died when walls of demolishing property fell on them.
Two persons died on Friday while one other person died on Saturday in a similar manner.
An eyewitness explained that the two who died on Friday, were evacuating some properties in one of the houses where occupants were chased out when a earth moving equipment knocked the house and the wall fell on them.
“They were rushed to the Mother of Specialist Hospital but regrettably on getting to the hospital doctors pronounced them dead.
“On Saturday, around 11:30am another person was hit and killed by falling debris from one of the several storey buildings.”
A senior police officer at the scene confirmed that the deaths of the scavengers, who came to make brisk business, from the rods and other building materials extracted from demolished buildings.
Although the officer could not confirmed the number of casualties, he simply said: “I can tell you authoritatively that some persons died at the demolition site when bulldozers pulled walls and it fell on them.”
Despite the death of some scavengers, hundreds of others were still scrambling to scoop metallic items and plastics from the debris of the demolished buildings whose owners had been displaced from the Holy Ghost by Market Road, Enugu.
Governor Peter Mbah’s administration had displaced the occupants of the buildings, including various businesses, banks, and Our Saviour Institute of Science Agricultural and Technology (OSISATECH) College of Education.
He had claimed that the administration had paid compensations to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), who werere the owners of the land and leased the place to the occupants and had duly compensated them to give way for the modern transport interchange or bus station at the place.
On Tuesday, some of the scavengers were still seen in their numbers scrambling for metals and other valuables.Meanwhile efforts to speak with the State Police Command over the incident were unsuccessful as the Command’s spokesperson DSP Daniel Ndukwe, did not take his calls as at the time of filing this report.
