by Hauwa Gambo

The body of a teenager who apparently drowned on Tuesday in a river called Oniyanrin in Owode village, was yesterday recovered by officials from the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA). Owode is in Ikorodu, Lagos.

The dead student has been identified as Feyisetan Owonifari, who was in Junior Secondary School 2  at the Ikosi High School, Ketu.

According to Vanguard, he had gone to have his bath in the river with his younger brother at about 10.20am.

His younger brother reportedly raised alarm on noticing that Feyi, as he was popularly called, was drowning. But help came late as other children said to be bathing in the river, fled abandoning the wailing boy.

Confused, his younger brother was said to have rushed home to inform his mother. The incident caused panic as parents and sympathizers thronged the river, without seeing Feyi.

His distraught mother, Mrs Kemi Owonifari, who is a member of the Lagos State  Neighborhood Watch group was said to have made concerted calls to various rescue teams.

Officials of NEMA and Merchant Navy reportedly arrived the scene at about 4.30pm, where search was conducted round the river, to no avail.

The Lagos State spokesperson for NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, told Vanguard: “We suspended the operation Tuesday and  commenced the search this morning (yesterday) and by 10:59 a.m. we recovered the body. We have handed the body over to the vice chairman of Isheri Local Council Development Area,who handed it over to the bereaved family.”