Bricklayer, Apprentice Drown In Ondo

Two middle-aged bricklayers have drowned in a 40-feet well at Omu Street along Ondo Road, Akure, the state capital in their bid to recover a fetcher.

One of the bricklayers went to fetch water after resuming for work at a construction site in the area.

The master, who had waited endlessly for his assistant to bring back water to mix the sand and cement, later went to search for him.

While the bricklayer’s apprentice fell inside the well while trying retrieve the fetcher, his master got drowned in an attempt to rescue him.

“The bricklayer on getting to the well peeped inside the well and discovered that his boy was struggling and shouting for help.

“When no help came on time, the bricklayer jumped inside the well with hope of rescuing his man but they both died in the process.

“The third bricklayer working with them out of shock of the ugly development raised alarm,” a witness told Thisday.

Other bricklayers working in the vicinity fled the scene for fear of arrest by law enforcement agents.

The remains of the bricklayers were pulled out by the officials of the state fire service, who later arrived the scene.

Officials of the state fire service reportedly attributed their death to their inhaling of a poisonous gas inside the deep well.

The corpses of the bricklayers have been deposited at the state specialist hospital.

Ondo Police PRO, Joseph, confirmed the incident and appealed to the people to always avoid risk that would end up terminating their lives abruptly.

According to him the deceased ought to have resulted to other means of retrieving the fetcher inside the well instead of jumping inside the deep well.

Joseph said the corpses are awaiting autopsy after which they would be released to their families for burial.