By Sampson Uhuegbu
A Thirty- four- year- old Mrs. Amarachi Ifeanyi, a nursing mother of a three- month- old baby and widow of Late Mr. Ifeanyi, landlord of the house whose soak-away pit claimed lives of promising young men, said, the tragic incident has remained shocking to her.
Recall, this medium carried the report of how four men died in a Soakaway pit, at Umuayalu Egbu community, in Owerri North Local Government Area of the State, last week, while trying to evacuate feces from the system.
In an interview with the widow, she made a shocking revelation of how her husband and three others died in a mysterious manner on that fateful morning of Saturday, 10th August, 2024, without saying a good-bye to her and their children.
She told this reporter who visited their compound, yesterday, 16th August, 2024, that the late husband and others had been emptying the septic tank for the past forty (40) years, emphasizing that no death incident had been recorded ever since.
According to the widow, her father -inlaw died in October, 2023, saying they were preparing for his memorial service which has been scheduled for next month, October before the urgly incident occurred. “My father -inlaw got ill for six years and it was my late husband who took care of him”.
“The sewage was evacuated Two weeks ago by four men and my husband paid them the sum of forty Thousand Naira (₦40,000). Only last weekend the chanel blocked suddenly and my husband called one of them on phone to come the following day to fix it.
She continued, “So, on Saturday morning, I was having morning devotion when one of the workers knocked at the gate and my husband went to open it, but shockingly, the key became stiff that he had to come in, took hammer and broke the key and brought
him in.
“After the prayers, I came and was watching them. The worker opened the chamber of the Soakaway to know the cause of the blockage but could not find anything. So, he now opened the Soakaway slab, husband brought a ladder and the worker entered”.
According to the widow, her late husband was standing and waiting to hear from the man who was inside the pit but he looked and found out the worker had fainted. “My husband now started raising alarm, people gathered he now entered to rescue the man and he slumped there too”, she said.
“My husband was an easy-going person and everybody likes him for that, even our tenants here. So, to the greatest surprise of the onlookers, my husband slumbered immediately he went to rescue the first person”.
She said, that everyone started shouting: “Oga Ifeanyi is dead, Oga Ifeanyi is dead” and one of the onlookers also moved in to rescue him but was also held inside, followed by the fourth person.
On what she suspected could be the cause of the incident, Mrs. Amarachi said their deaths had remained mysterious to her, and bursted into tears that she has lost her everything.
“My husband was everything to me. I delivered my baby through surgical operation. Doctor warned me to avoid hard labour. My husband does everything for me. He goes to the market, cooks for us, does some hard domestic work that I had been advised from desist from.
This reporter also visited the house of the President General of the Community, Chief Geoffrey Okoroafor but he was said to be out of town.
An middle -aged man who preferred not to be mentioned, told this medium that fear gripped people of the community that they managed and brought out their lifeless bodies from the Soakaway with ropes.
He said, their deaths are spiritual and that they were going find out what happened to them.
