A newly weeded couple who drown in a river at Fori, a community behind 202 housing estate Maiduguri, after a canoe was capsized had been found dead after 24 hours of searching.
Also among the victims of the incident, a student of University of Maiduguri, UNIMAID, Coleman Moses and an aged woman identified as Maman Hauwa, were also found dead.
The couple, identified as Zaro Miletus and his wife Patience, tied the knot in March this year and Mr. Moses, a 200 level geography department students, who resume academic activities last week after a semester break, is from Adamawa State.
The couple and Maman Hauwa were buried yesterday in Maiduguri while Moses remains will be taken by his parents today Tuesday, who came from Adamawa.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The commercial canoe, with five passengers on board capsized on Sunday morning, around 7:30AM, trying to cross the river and while four of them had drown, the canoe rider and one other barely escaped through.
According to eye witnesses, some voluntary persons had made efforts to rescue or recover bodies of the victims after the incident but to no avail.
They said a local vigilante swimmer, popularly known as Sarkin Ruwa, a Hausa term to mean ‘King of Water’ was also brought to the river to recover bodies of the victims but it was alleged that he didn’t swim-in because he demanded to be given N10,000 to recover the bodies.
The bodies were found on Monday at…….
According to residents around the river, such incidents are a recurring event and there are lost of lives annually due to similar incidents.
The river flow in Fori is an annual incidents when access water from Alau Dam flows down to the river.
It is gathered that the river became filled to capacity during raining season and will begin to shrink gradually after raining season elapses.
Malam ABU, an irrigation farmer around the river said the river flows throughout the year but it remained filled-up only for about five months or less in a year.
For the later part of the year, he said people can easily cross the river without the need of a canoe.
People coming from UNIMAID and its environs to access Fori community usually board on canoes to cross the river, but following the construction of a small bridge in the community by the state government in 2016, the patronage of canoes reduced drastically and has minimized cases of canoe capsizing with people, which at times leads to lost of lives and properties.
However, some residents of the area still patronize canoes, particularly during raining seasons, to cross the river for fishing, irrigation activities and other daily routines across the river.
This latest incident happened a walking distance away from the bridge.
