11-year-old almajiri drowns in FCT river

An 11-year-old Almajiri, Ibrahim Kabir, has reportedly drowned in a river at Gada-Buyi in Kwali Area Council of the FCT.

City & Crime reports that the Gada-Buyi community is located on the Abuja-Lokoja highway.

A resident of the area, Usman Aliyu, said the incident happened on Monday around 2pm when the deceased joined two of his age mates who are also Almajiris to swim in the river.

He said the boy jumped from the overhead bridge into the river and hit his head on a log of wood inside the river and he could come out again.

• 3 killed, 8 injured in renewed farmer-herder clashes in Adamawa
• Customs intercepts N1.8bn expired pharmaceuticals, others at seaport

He said it was a middle-aged man who was bathing at the river bank who noticed that he could not come out again and he went to alert some residents.

He said, “They were three who went to the river to swim and when one of the boys jumped from the top of the bridge into the river, he did not come out again, until when a man who was bathing noticed that, drew attention of some fishermen who later dived into the river and brought him out.”

He said the boy died instantly as a result of the head injury he sustained inside the river, even as he said his remains had been buried according to Islamic rites.

City & Crime reliably learnt that a 13-year-old boy also got drowned inside the river two months ago when he went swimming in the river with his mates.