A 13-year-old Junior Secondary School student has been swept away by flood in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), leaving his family and residents searching for his remains.
The incident occurred when the teenager, Alhassan Jamil, fell into the fast-moving flood while travelling to school with his father on a motorcycle.
His father, Jamil Maikasuwa, said he had been taking his son to school when the boy lost his balance and ended up in the water.
Jamil was reportedly swept away while crossing a double-cell culvert around Phase 3 of Gwagwalada Area Council on Wednesday.
He was a student of Ihyau El-Burhan Academy and had been seated behind his father on the motorcycle when the incident occurred.
According to Maikasuwa, he noticed that the flood was moving rapidly and applied the motorcycle’s brakes.
However, his son reportedly panicked and jumped off the motorcycle, falling directly into the floodwater.
“Immediately I realised that he had jumped from the motorcycle, I pushed the bike aside and tried to grab his hand, but the flood carried him away,” the grieving father said.
Maikasuwa, who serves as Special Assistant to the Gwagwalada Area Council chairman on Domestic Affairs, said efforts to locate his son had continued.
He added that fishermen and divers had been mobilised to search the affected waterways.
The father further said some residents living close to the riverbank claimed to have seen what appeared to be the boy’s body floating in the water, with his school bag still strapped to him.
However, the remains had not been recovered as of the time of filing this report.
“We are still hoping that the search team will find him so that we can recover his body and give him a befitting burial,” Maikasuwa said.
Meanwhile, the incident has again highlighted the danger posed by rapidly rising floodwaters, particularly around drainage channels and waterways during heavy rainfall in Abuja.
The family and residents are now awaiting the outcome of the ongoing search for the missing student.