It was gathered that a woman had gone to the river to fetch water when she found the corpses of the two pupils floating on the river.
A resident of the area told
our correspondent on Thursday that the woman dropped her bucket and ran back to
the community where she raised the alarm.
It was learnt that the
matter was later reported to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and a
rescue team from the agency was deployed in the scene.
It was gathered that the
pupils had gone missing on Monday, while their parents and other relatives had
been looking for them. The parents were said to have broken down in tears on
seeing the corpses of their children on Wednesday when their bodies were
recovered.
The pupils were identified
as Samson Obasanjo and Kabiru, pupils of Junior Secondary School 2 at Ife-Oluwa
Middle School, Osogbo.
Some persons said one of
the two victims was going to a bakery where he normally worked after school
hours when the incident happened.
Correspondent, who visited
the school gathered that seven pupils had gone to the area where the incident
happened to pluck some fruits.
One of the victims was said
to have jumped inside the river to swim to the other side of the river where a
cherry tree was, but did not come out.
It was learnt that after a
while the second victim reportedly jumped inside the river to see why the first
had not come out and he too disappeared.
The remaining five pupils
were said to have waited for the two victims to come out, but after the duo did
not come out, they were said to have sworn to an oath that they would not
disclose what happened to their colleagues to anybody.
A resident of the area told
our correspondent that students of the school and other public schools around
the area were known for truancy.
The Head, Disaster Rescue
Team of the NSCDC in Osun State, Mr. Olufemi Awofade, who confirmed the
incident to our correspondent, said the team had removed the corpses of the
pupils.
He said after recovering
the corpses of the pupils, their parents took charge and called the worshipers
of Osun goddess to perform some rites on them before burial at the riverbank.
Awofade said, “We got a
call that a certain woman went to fetch water at the Osun River on Wednesday
and she saw corpses on the water.”
The principals of School 2
and School 3 at Ife-Oluwa Middle School declined comment.The two principals
told our correspondent, who visited the school, that “we don’t grant press
interviews.”
Omase
ReplyDeletesure they could not swim, poor children
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