Two Students Drown in Akwa Ibom River

Okon Bassey

Two male senior secondary school (SSS) students from a private school, Alex Commercial Secondary School, Idua in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom have reportedly drowned in Qua River.

The victims identified as Aniekan Harry from Uruan and Uche Okoli from Eastern Obolo Local Government Areas respectively were among the eight students that allegedly sneaked out of the school compound to the river situated closed to the residence of Senator Helen Esuene.

One of the students who were at the beach, Master Owen Oscar, said they decided to go to the river to play following a postponed football match between their school and a rival school.

“We all agreed to go to Qua River close to Hospital road to play causal football. When we finished playing, the victims said they were tired and wanted to swim in the Atlantic Ocean.”

He said the decision of the victims to swim in the river was their own, as they were advised against it because of the depth of the ocean and how dangerous it is because of the number of persons that drowned in it.

The eyewitness said while six others were watching one of the victims, Okoli jumped inside the ocean while Harry’s legs slipped in the water.

According to him, when the victims could not be seen again, the marine policemen and other divers in the area were contacted to help search for them without success only for their dead bodies to float on the water after three days.

The Principal of the school, Mr Asuquo Ekong, confirmed that two students drowned in the river, saying that the victims did not inform the school management of their movement that fateful day.

He said a female teacher called him in the night of the incident to break the sad news, stressing that the school authority was not aware of any football match between the school and another.

“The school management was not aware of their plan to play football with any rival school, they left the school without the knowledge of the school management,” he said indicating that on the day of the incident, he personally supervised the exams in the school.

In her reaction, a relation of one of the victims, Mrs. Mercydonia Harry, alleged that the six students who survived must have gone to the river to initiate the victims into a secret cult, saying that the incident was worrisome and pathetic.

Officials of the Eket Divisional Police were among those that recovered the corpses of the victims for burial three days after.

The Akwa Ibom State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana confirmed the incident, saying that reports had it that the students went to swim in the river. “Police is aware of the incident and the corpses have been recovered.”

He advised parents and their wards to be more cautious, adding that parents should monitor the movement of their children “swimming in the river is not a crime but you must be a swimmer to play around the river.

“They have their right to go to where they want to go but I advise people to be careful when they go to swim and think about their safety first,” he said, adding that the incident has nothing to do with cultism but they just went to the river to bath.