By Esseh Ikora, Uyo
Fear gripped Idua community in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State following the recovery of corpses of two students who drowned at Quo Iboe River over the weekend,
The deceased, Aniekan Harry and Uche Okoli, said to be Senior Secondary School (SSS 2) students of the private school, Alex Secondary school were said to have gone to the river to swim when they got drowned. after playing football at the river beach.
Their lifeless bodies were recovered by divers floating on the river after being drowned for three days, Effiong Ufot, a local fisherman told reporters in Eket, yesterday.
Reports said eight students left their school for the Qua Iboe river beach, to swim after a friendly football match scheduled to hold with a rival school was abruptly cancelled.
According Owen Oscar, one of the students, “after the cancellation of the football match with another school, we had to migrate to another location at the Qua Iboe River beach, to dissipate our energy”.
He disclosed that “eight of us left the school after the friendly game was cancelled to still play the game at the beach among ourselves but two of us left after to go and swim”.
“Some of us were not in school that day to write the exams, and because of that, I had to go home and changed my uniform before going to inform one of us, Elijah, about the cancellation of the friendly match.
“After that, eight of us decided to go to the Qua Iboe River beach to play football”, he explained.
“We did not know the two of them cannot (swim) It was after sometime that I noticed that we were now only six of us swimming.
“We had all agreed not to swim in the middle of the river but it’s like they refused to obey to the instructions. They went into the deeper part of the river and got drowned in the river.”he explained.
It was gathered that when Owen and the other five student were missing in the river they ran out the river and headed to the Marine Police post to raise the alarm.
But by the time the Marine Police got to the river to rescue the boys it was too late, the water current had already move the boys to an unknown part of the river, a source said.
“The Marine Policemen, when they could not rescue the victims, only advised us to go and report the matter to the parents”, adding that efforts to locate the victims’ remains were hampered by lack of facilities.
Confirming the incident, the Principal of the school, Mr. Asuquo Ekong, denied knowledge of any football match against a rival school that was cancelled, which forced the students to stray out for beach football.
“I am not aware of ..any football match with another school. If there was something like that, management of the school would have been notified, but we not informed”, Ekong explained.
He advised parents to be in the vanguard of securing their children and wards through effective surveillance, proper advise, education and enlightenment.
However, a family member, who identified herself as Mercydonia Harry, dismissed the position that the victims died of drowning, alleging that they were murdered.
She disclosed that the dead students were surreptitiously taken to the beach for forced initiation into cultism, adding that their resistance compelled their colleagues to administer corporal punishment of death on them.
But the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Elkana Bala, who confirmed the incident, dismissed such allegation; maintaining that the victims died of accident.
“It was an accident eight students had gone to river to swim, and you know, not all of them may know how to swim. That is what happened . It was an accident.
Their bodies have been recovered by the police and deposited in a mortuary”.
