Five Students confirmed dead in Kaduna boat mishap

Five students of Victory College, in Ungwan Yelwa in Chikun Local Government Area in Kaduna State on Wednesday drowned in River Kaduna while on an excursion.

The five students, including a female whose names were obtained by our correspondent in Kaduna on Thursday, include Goodness Aromilade, Monday Umahi, Joseph Benedict and David Ukegbu, Priscilla Romania (female). They were aged between 14 and 16.

73 students of the Victory College had on Wednesday embarked on an excursion to the Kaduna Water pump station located around the popular Kaduna Railway Station by the River Kaduna bank.

“The students were in a static boat when it sunk. Nine of the students fell into the river. They have been going there on an excursion. That was not their first excursion to the Kaduna,” a source said.

Four out of the nine students were rescued while the other five were feared drowned, according to the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Ezekiel Baba-Karik.

Baba-Karik while speaking with journalists at the scene of the incident said the bodies of the five students were yet to be recovered as of the time of filing this report, more than 20 hours after the incident occurred.

He said the agency lacked the capacity to do so.

He noted that immediately the agency was alerted over the incidence, officials of the agency promptly swung into action and rescued four out of the nine students alive.

He said, “This unfortunate incident occurred yesterday (Wednesday) when some students from a particular school came on excursion to the water-intake of the Kaduna State Water Board. They came on excursion and mistakingly something went wrong technically and nine students were drowned. 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.”

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )