A 13-year-old Junior Secondary School (JSS) student of Ihyau El-Burhan Academy, Phase 3, Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhassan Jamil, was swept away by flood while on his way to school on Wednesday.
The boy’s father, Jamil Maikasuwa, who narrated the incident to our reporter at his Old Kutunku residence, said it occurred at about 7:30am near the Mobil filling station along the Old Kutunku-Market Road, shortly after an early morning rainfall.
He said he had picked up his son on his motorcycle to take him to school after the rain when the teenager fell into a flooded culvert as they attempted to cross a double-cell culvert near the filling station.
According to him, the floodwater had almost covered the culvert, forcing him to apply the brakes and attempt to turn back.
He said his son, apparently frightened by the situation, jumped off the motorcycle and fell into the culvert.
“Immediately he jumped down from the bike, I quickly pushed the bike aside and tried to grab his hand to save him, but unfortunately, the flood swept him away,” he said.
Maikasuwa said his son had initially been reluctant to go with him on the motorcycle because he was accustomed to being taken to school by a commercial cyclist.
He, however, described Alhassan as a brilliant student who consistently came first in his class from nursery one to primary four.
Maikasuwa, who is the Special Assistant to the chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council on Domestic Affairs, said Alhassan was the eldest of his four children.
He said fishermen and divers had been mobilised to search the river for his son’s remains.
“Actually, my son’s corpse is yet to be recovered, even though some residents whose houses are close to the river bank said they sighted the corpse with his school bag strapped to his back floating. We hope that the corpse will be recovered and given a burial,” he said.
An elder brother to Maikasuwa said the incident was the second such occurrence in four days, following the drowning of four people in a canoe accident while crossing a river to a farm in the area.
He said only one of the four bodies had so far been recovered.
Meanwhile, the wife of the chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, Mrs Rabiat Kasim Ikwa, who was among the first callers to condole with the family, expressed shock and sadness over the incident.
Some residents living close to the scene also expressed shock, saying the flood suddenly surged from a FADAMA farm with force and swept away the boy.
As of the time of filing this report last night, the boy’s remains had yet to be recovered.
