A little boy who disappeared from home has been found dead inside a cesspit, sending family into serious grief.

It has been reported that the many residents on Simpson Street, in the Ebute-Meta area of Lagos State were thrown into mourning on Wednesday after the corpse of a three-year-old boy, identified as Waris, was found dead in a cesspit of an uncompleted building.

According to Punch Metro, it was learnt that Waris was with his mother in their apartment before he went out to play.

His mother was said to have raised the alarm when she did not see Waris in the compound.

It was gathered that the mother and her neighbours searched for the boy, which was initially unsuccessful.

Waris, who was said to have got missing around 3.30pm, was later found inside the cesspit around 7pm.

The father of the deceased, who declined to give his name, said the cesspit was opened because workers wanted to work on it.

He said, “His mother went to pick him in school and when they got home, his mother changed his clothes and he went out to play.

“They don’t normally open the cesspit, but yesterday (Wednesday) they wanted to work on it, so they opened it to bring out water that was inside.”

One of the neighbours, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the incident as unfortunate.

He said, “His mother was taking care of the younger brother inside the house and she discovered that she could not find him and she informed the neighbours who conducted a search.

“After searching for a while, someone discovered one of his slippers beside the cesspit and a ladder was brought to search inside the cesspit and his body was found in there.”

He said Waris was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.