Bodies of Ebonyi APC youth leader and police officers recovered from mining pit (Photos)

The bodies of three victims of the accident that occurred in Ebonyi over the weekend, have been recovered.

On Saturday, a vehicle veered off the Abakaliki-Ikwo road in Ebonyi, and plunged into a mining pit in the area.

Rescue efforts began on Saturday evening, but the water-logged nature of the mining pit area affected the operations.

The three bodies — that of Ogochukwu Elem, a youth leader in Ebonyi, and two police officers — were eventually recovered yesterday.

The three victims were said to be on their way to a function, when the accident happened.

Speaking at the scene of the incident yesterday, David Umahi, governor of Ebonyi, commiserated with the family members of the victims.

According to a statement by Francis Nwaze, spokesman to the Ebonyi governor, Umahi described the incident as “very mysterious and unfortunate”.

“We learned of the unfortunate incident of an accident on this road on Saturday. The accident is still a mystery to all of us as that was the APC state youth leader with two policemen that were going for a function and the accident happened,” Umahi was quoted as saying.

“We do not know the cause of the accident; we do not know what happened, but it is quite very mysterious that even the wedges of the sand could not stop them, and the car plunged into a mining pit that was dug over 20 years ago and not closed.

“It is very unfortunate, and we have been fighting this issue of digging pits, harvesting led, zinc and even chippings without closing it back.

“We are going to identify all the pits in Ebonyi state, whether it was dug for led, zinc, chippings or any other mineral in the state. We have to identify who did it and the closing of these pits must commence latest by next week Monday.”