Federal Polytechnic, Nekede Students Drowned & Died In Otamiri River
The Federal Polytechnic Nekede Community wore a dull look weekend as one final year National Diploma student in Building Technology, Mr. Ebuka Onuoha and his friend Mr Edozie Igwilo drown in the Otamiri River in Nekede.
Interacting with an eye witness yesterday Mr. Chukwudi Okwuchukwu a year one National Diploma Computer Science, who said he was among the four boys that went to the river to swim, Igwilo was Onuora’s friend and both hails from Anambra state. According to him, Igwilo was a JAMB candidate whose center was in Owweri. He said after Igwilo got his JAMB centre, he (Igwilo) requested that he wants to swim and persuaded them to go for a swim. They went to their hostels to prepare for the swimming, which they left.
While they were swimming, they persuaded me to join but I refused but was snapping them pictures, because, an indigene had warned earlier not to swim, especially when it is getting dark but they refused and continued, ignoring his advise, he added.
Continuing, Okwuchukwu said they persuaded him to join them in the swimming but he refused, due to his past experience in the same river, adding that while he was busy snapping them by the river bank, the two boys came and push him inside the river but he managed to escape, and they started throwing abuses on him, which according to him he accepted gladly.
He said while watching them play in the river, suddenly they started struggling to come out but they could not, stating that he ran back to their hostel to seek for help, but he saw some ladies there and inform them of the incident, and went ahead to call some villagers for help which he could not find any one at present.
Speaking also, the Umuoma Youth Leader, Mr. Chinedu Emmanuel Ejiogu, who stated that the boys had been warned earlier of the dangers of Otamiri river but they could not heed to their warning, pointing out that the boys were warned on Thursday by a villager before the Friday incident.
Ejiogu who pointed out that when the incident happened, he was called, and he directed his people to look for a diver so as to conduct a search party on the two boys, which according to him, the diver found one of the boys, but he was dead already.
He said that after appeasing the gods on that Friday after they might have seen one of the corpse, they left to come back on Sunday and found the corpse floating.
The youth leader said the bodies had been deposited in the mortuary with the help of the Dean of Studies of the Polytechnic and the Student Union Government President.
