Tragedy: *Machines beheads factory worker
By GAMBO KANNO

FOR workers at Hajawa Enterprises, a tannery in Sharada Phase II, Thursday, January 11, 2007 which started like any normal day, ended up with a tragedy which memories will linger on in their minds’ eyes for long.
As usual, workers reported to their duty post as early as 7:00am, despite the chilly harmattan weather which was characterized by unprecedented dust and haze.
Emmanuel Offikwu, one of the factory workers, who was also said to be the best operator of the factory’s big-drums machine, was hale and hearty when he reported for work that fateful day.
But as fate will have it, just as he settled for the day’s job, a freak accident occurred and within a twinkle of an eye, his head was completely severed from his body by a machine he had been operating for five years.
Weekend Triumph findings revealed that, for minutes, confusion took over the factory as co-workers who were there could not readily tell how Emmanuel’s head was severed.
It was reliably gathered that the company had in the past been faulted by the Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Labour and Productivity for its failure to provide required safety measures for its workers.
Weekend Triumph however, learnt that the company had just started installing the safety gadgets recommended by the inspectorate when this accident occurred.
“It is very unfortunate and regrettable that Emmanuel Effikwu was one of the best big-drum machine operators who has undergone training and re-training in his five years of service to the company”, a top management staff of the company told our reporter.
Our findings further revealed that the company has prepared a compensation package of N1.2 million for the family of the deceased and has started paying the widow, herself a retrenched worker of the company to help cushion the financial problems that will face the family now that their bread winner is gone.
Efforts to find out the culpability or otherwise of the owners of Hajawa Enterprises Sharada from the police proved abortive as the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Baba Muhammad, was not on hand when Weekend Triumph called at the Police Headquarters, Bompai, Kano.
A reliable source however, confirmed that the case has been reported to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the state police command and that the matter is under investigation.