A routine school run turned tragic in Gwagwalada, Abuja, after a 13-year-old Junior Secondary School student, Alhassan Jamil, was swept away by floodwaters while on his way to school.
Jamil, a student of Ihyau El-Burhan Academy, Phase 3, Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, was being taken to school by his father, Jamil Maikasuwa, on Wednesday, September 9, when disaster struck.
Recounting the incident to Daily Trust, the grieving father said he was riding across a double-cell culvert with his son seated behind him when he noticed the floodwaters moving at high speed.
“Upon discovering that the flood water was coming on high speed, I applied brake but my son, out of fear, jumped from the bike and suddenly fell into the flood water,” he said.
Maikasuwa said he immediately abandoned the motorcycle and reached out in a desperate attempt to rescue his son, but the force of the rushing water proved too strong.
“Immediately when I discovered he jumped down from the bike, I quickly pushed the bike aside and tried to grab his hand in order to save him, but unfortunately, the flood water swept him away,” he added.
The bereaved father, who serves as Special Assistant to the Gwagwalada Area Council Chairman on Domestic Affairs, said efforts to recover his son’s body were still ongoing as of Wednesday.
According to him, some residents living close to the riverbank claimed to have seen a body floating downstream with a schoolbag strapped to its back.
Maikasuwa said fishermen and divers had been mobilised to search the river in the hope of recovering the boy’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 discovered the corpse with his school bag strapped to his back floating.
“We hope that the corpse will be recovered so we can give him a befitting burial,” he said.
