Nine miners have died after floodwater submerged a mining pit in Nahuta Village, Gwana District, Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Nafiu Habib, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with Daily Trust yesterday.
He said the incident occurred on Sunday, September 27, when the miners were working at a mining pit that was flooded following heavy rainfall.
According to him, Kasim Abdulsalam, the purchase manager of Zurfi Mining Company in Nahuta, reported the incident to the police.
Habib said the miners were contract workers operating at Pit Three when water flooded the pit after heavy rainfall around 3pm on September 25.
He said some of the miners were rescued, while one victim was electrocuted and rushed to General Hospital, Kashere, in Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State, where he was confirmed dead.
“The DPO Alkaleri led a team of detectives to the scene, where three water pump generators were seen evacuating water from the pit to enable the rescue of the remaining victims,” he said.
Habib said the remaining eight miners were eventually removed from the pit at about 6:20am on September 28 and taken to the same hospital.
He said they were all confirmed dead by a medical doctor.
The deceased were identified as Hamidu Ali, 40, Saidu Abubakar, 29, and Olije Abdulrazak, 25, all from Nasarawa and Kogi states.
Others were Musa Abdullahi, 29, Abdulrahman Mu’azu, 23, and Jafar Abbas, 24, from Bauchi State; Jose Ukese, 28, from Nasarawa State; and Haruna Alkali, 30, from Kebbi State.
Habib said the corpses were released to their relatives after medical examination for burial according to their respective religious rites.
He added that investigation into the incident was ongoing.
Rivers relocates school as flooding submerges homes
The Rivers State Government has relocated students and staff of Community Secondary School, Rumuapara, to State Primary School, Nkpolu, in Rumuigbo, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, following severe flooding in the area.
The relocation took effect on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, to protect students and staff from the effects of flooding that has submerged the school premises and several nearby houses.
The Commissioner for Education, Dr Peters Nwagor, approved the relocation in a circular obtained by Daily Trust in Port Harcourt.
He said the decision was necessary to safeguard the lives and well-being of students and staff while the government worked towards finding a lasting solution to the problem.
Flooding has affected several communities in Rivers State, particularly in Port Harcourt, displacing residents and destroying property.
NEMA places 15 states on red alert
Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has placed 15 states on flood red alert as it steps up preparations for possible flooding across the country.
The affected states are Imo, Cross River, Ebonyi, Benue, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Rivers, Edo, Kogi, Taraba, Delta, Bayelsa, Enugu and Abia.
The Head of Operations, NEMA Kaduna Operations Office, Halima Dauda Sulaiman, disclosed this on Wednesday in Kaduna at the opening of a refresher course on Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) for flooding.
Sulaiman, who spoke on behalf of the Director-General of NEMA, said flooding remained the most recurring disaster in the country.
She said the agency was strengthening the capacity of emergency responders to deal with the changing nature of flood disasters.
According to her, lessons from NEMA’s flood operations in 2022, 2024 and 2025 showed that urban flooding was becoming increasingly complex.
“The 2022, 2024 and 2025 flood operations have taught us a hard lesson that urban flooding is becoming more complex.
“We are not just rescuing people from open water; we are navigating through urban settlements with submerged houses, collapsed walls, live electrical hazards and panicked populations,” she said.
