On March 21, 2013 in Yelwa Makaranta Community, a suburb of Bauchi metropolis.
The tragic incident happened at the residence of one Alhaji Nuhu Dalhatu who gave the contract of cleaning the well in his house to one Ibrahim Jibrin and Ibrahim called his friend, Usman Ali, 35, to assist him to clean the well. Tragedy, however, struck when Ibrahim decided to take a generator into the well to power the pumping machine. This turned out to be a tragic error for him when the fumes emitted by the generator began to circulate in the well. He subsequently lost consciousness.
An eyewitness who pleaded anonymity said: "When Ibrahim started the generator, he gradually began to lose consciousness because of the fumes coming out of the generator.
We observed that he was no longer moving but later heard him saying: 'Help me, I am losing my strength'. After sometime we did not hear anything from him again. It was at this point that his friend, Usman, who invited him for the job, decided to enter the well to bring out his dying friend.
Loss of consciousness
We cautioned him not to go into the well because we were afraid of what might happen to him. He refused to listen to us and entered the well".
The eyewitness added that when Usman got into the well, he was able to hoist Ibrahim on his shoulder and had almost succeeded in bringing out his friend when he also lost consciousness and fell back into the well.
That was how the two of them died. A brave attempt by one Dan Asabe Shehu to rescue the doomed men proved abortive as Dan was forced to abandon the idea when he also found himself losing consciousness on entering the well.
By this time, news of the tragic adventure of the two men had spread through the community and it was greeted with pandemonium and rage. The youths of the area immediately went on rampage, throwing stones on the vehicle of the men of the Bauchi State Fire Service who came to the scene in order to evacuate the bodies of the victims from the well.
The men of the Fire Service, it was learnt, handed the corpses over to the police who conveyed same to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Hosiptal.
Cleaning of the well
When reporters visited the residence of Alhaji Nuhu Dalhatu, he was said to be still in shock over the tragic incident. But this did not stop him from saying that if he had known that the cleaning of the well would lead to the death of two people, he would have called it off, adding that he allowed the job to go on because he was not God and could not predict what would happen.
According to him: "I gave the contract of cleaning the well in my compound to Ibrahim Jibrin because the well was very dirty and I have not been using it for two years. Ibrahim accepted to do the job because he was a specialist in cleaning well for people. I was not even aware that he invited his friend to assist him with the job.
That day when I returned from work, I met the vehicle of the Fire Service at the front of my house, I became afraid because I thought one of my children had fallen into the well. I enquired and was told that two men died inside the well".
The late Ibrahim's friend, Dan Asabe Shehu, who also narrowly escaped death, narrated what transpired that fateful day.
According to him: "I was in my shop doing my work as a tailor when I learnt that two men working inside a well needed help. So I volunteered to go and see what I could do to save the situation. On getting to the scene, I was told that the men were still stuck inside the well.
At first I though I could save them, but as I was going inside the well, I began to lose consciousness and so I decided to come out. The people around the well assisted me to come out because I was very weak and feeling faint. All I could remember later was finding myself in the hospital bed with drips attached to my body. I was lucky to survive the incident".
At the late Ibrahim's residence in Bayara village, his two wives and aged mother were still mourning his death. Ibrahim's mother, Hajiya Talatu Hamisu, said the incident was like a bad dream because on that fateful day he(Ibrahim) initially did not wanted to go and do the job, but later changed his mind.
She said: "On that day, he was at home and received a call from his friend inviting him to go and clean the well. He initially told his friend to leave the job for the following day. But later changed his mind and decided to go ahead with it. He left the house and told one of his wives to cook his favourite meal. I did not know that was the last time I will set my eyes on my son again. It is very painful for us in the family, but we have to bear it because it is his time to die".
It was gathered that Usman was making plans to get married before the unfortunate incident occurred. His friend.
