ever you are…” was the cry of one of the parents of the five
students of a private secondary school, Victory College,
Ungwan Yelwa in Chikun Local Government Area in Kaduna
State, who drowned Wednesday morning, during an
excursion to River Kaduna.
It was gathered that the drowned students were part of the
73 students of the school led to the Kaduna Water Pump
Station, located around the popular Kaduna Railway Station,
by two members of staff of the school.
According to eyewitnesses, the students were taken to the
water intake point, when a board that serves as a viewing
point caved in under their weight.
Although nine students were said to have fallen into the
river, four of them were rescued, while five were swept
away by the fast flowing river.
The five students, who remained unaccounted for at press
time, are Goodness Aromilade, Monday Umahi, Joseph
Benedict and David Ukegbu, and the only female student in
the group, Priscilla Romania.
There’s little hope —Emergency agency
Speaking with journalists at the scene of the incident, the
Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Emergency
Management Agency, Mr. Ezekiel Baba-Karik, said the
bodies of the five students were yet to be recovered by
rescuers because the agency lacked the capacity to do so.
He expressed fear that more than 20 hours after the
incident, there was no likelihood that the students may still
be found alive.
He said: “This unfortunate incident occurred yesterday
(Wednesday) when some students came on excursion to
the water-intake of the Kaduna State Water Board.
“They came on excursion and mistakenly something went
wrong technically and nine students fell in the water. But as
information reached us, we swung into action immediately
and an hour later, we rescued four out of the nine students.
“As you can see, our men are here to see if we can recover
the remaining five bodies. That is why we are here. There is
nothing God cannot do, but humanly speaking, this is over
20 hours after the incident occurred.
“It is impossible to get them out alive, but our people are
working on the possibility of recovering their bodies. Now,
our divers are inside the river to see if we can recover
them.”
The incident has sparked outrage among parents and
members of the public for the negligence of the school
management as well as the slow response of the state
emergency management agency.
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