13-Year-Old Schoolboy Swept Away In Gwagwalada Flood

The search for a 13-year-old schoolboy, Alhassan Jamil, who was swept away by flood in Gwagwalada area council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), entered another phase yesterday as fishermen and divers joined the efforts to locate him.

Jamil, a Junior Secondary School student of Ihyau El-Burhan Academy, Phase 3, Gwagwalada, was reportedly carried away by the flood while accompanying his father to school.

His father, Jamil Maikasuwa, who narrated the incident at his Old Kutunku residence, said the tragedy occurred when they were attempting to cross a double-cell culvert on a motorcycle.

Maikasuwa said he had picked up his son on the motorcycle to take him to school when he noticed that the floodwater was moving rapidly.

He said he immediately applied the brakes, but his son, apparently frightened by the situation, jumped from the motorcycle and fell into the rushing water.

According to him, he pushed the motorcycle aside and reached out to rescue the boy, but the powerful current swept him away.

“Immediately I discovered that he had 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 said.

Maikasuwa, who is the Special Assistant to the Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council on Domestic Affairs, said the boy’s body had yet to be recovered.

He, however, said residents living near the riverbank had reported seeing what they believed to be the boy’s body floating downstream, with his school bag still strapped to his back.

He said fishermen and divers had subsequently been mobilised to intensify the search.

“Actually, my son’s corpse is yet to be recovered, even though some residents whose houses are close to the riverbank 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,” the distraught father said.