Residents of Sarai Village in Dawakin Kudu Local Government Area of Kano State were thrown into shock on Thursday after the body of a 96-year-old woman was discovered inside a soakaway pit.
The spokesperson of the Kano State Fire Service, Saminu Abdullahi, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Friday.
According to Abdullahi, the agency received a distress call around 9:27 a.m. on Thursday from one Usman Adamu, who reported that an elderly woman had fallen into a toilet pit in Sarai Village.
He said a rescue team from the agency’s headquarters was immediately dispatched to the scene, where they discovered the lifeless body of the woman identified as Habiba Ado.
“Relatives of the deceased said she had been suffering from mental illness and had been missing for about four days before her body was found in the pit,” Abdullahi said.
He added that the family appealed to the owner of the house to properly seal the pit to prevent similar tragedies.
Abdullahi further stated that the body of the deceased was recovered and handed over to the Ward Head, Alhaji Musa Muhammad, for burial according to Islamic rites.
Incidents of people losing their lives in pit toilets and sewage tanks have been recurrent in Kano.
In April 2022, a 40-year-old man, Muazu Garba, died while attempting to retrieve his mobile phone from a pit toilet at Jigirya Quarters, Nassarawa Local Government Area. Similarly, in January 2023, two brothers — Musa Abdullahi and Rabiu Abdullahi, aged 27 and 17 — were killed in a sewage tank in the state.