Parents of a four-year-old boy, Chukwuemeka Okoro, family and their neighbours are currently troubled over their inability to retrieve the boy’s body almost one week after he was swept away by flood in a Lagos community, Nigeria.
The incident happened last week Tuesday when Okoro fell into a canal at Nobel Street and washed away through a nearby drainage in the Onibata community, both in the Ogba area of Lagos, according to Punch.
The tragedy was said to have occurred during a downpour witnessed in the area on Tuesday.
The boy, who was said to be standing at the edge of a drainage at Nobel Street in Ogba reportedly slipped and fell inside the drainage as the flood washed him into a canal that led to the Onibata community.
According to reports, no fewer than 20 volunteer members of the family and residents, combed the area on Friday, in a frantic search for Okoro’s body and all efforts to retrieve his body had yet to yield any results.
Okoro’s distraught father, Ikechukwu, in an interview with Punch, said he was interested in retrieving his son’s body to enable the family to conduct the final rites as demanded by their tradition.
He said: “We are so sad. We have not been able to report this incident to the authority because we have been busy looking for the boy. We were more than 50 yesterday (Thursday). I don’t think you can step your feet in the canal. We are yet to find his body.
“There was a lady here that promised that she was going to inform the authority about the incident, but we never heard anything about it since then. What we are now seeking is to see the body and perform our traditional rite.
“From Onibata here, the search has led us to Alagbole. We also went to Akintolu. It was when we got there that the residents in the area told us that the river did not flow to the area and that it diverted somewhere else. We have even extended our search to Kara, hoping to see him, but nothing came out of it.”