How 4 kids died in a Kaduna river

The four children aged between six and 17 planned that fateful morning to celebrate their younger sister’s birthday after returning from the farm. According to their uncle, Patrick James Doka, the children had told them that the celebration of the birthday will commence after they have finished their school home work on returning from the […]

The four children aged between six and 17 planned that fateful morning to celebrate their younger sister’s birthday after returning from the farm. According to their uncle, Patrick James Doka, the children had told them that the celebration of the birthday will commence after they have finished their school home work on returning from the farm.

However, Gimba, Bossan, Zichat, and Ibro, all children of Mr. Doka Abet Daji were never to live to celebrate their sister’s birthday.

The boys, according a family member, Rita Gabriel, drawned while trying to cross Romi River in Chikun Local Government Area of the state, on their way to the farm. The incident happened on the morning of Saturday, September 29.

Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State, Olufemi Adenaike in a text message told Weekly Trust said, “It has been confirmed that a family lost four of their kids at about 10:30 hrs on Saturday in a river in Ungwar Romi on their way to farm. Efforts are being made to recover the bodies on the remaining two.”

For Doka, the disappearance and eventual death of the children, three of which are his biological sons, is a mystery. “Am still in a shock; we were in a family meeting in my father’s house when they left for the farm.

“After two days of the search, we found the younger one among them without any sign to show that he was all the while inside water. Two days later, the eldest was found on top of the water with his head butchered. With all these am confused and can’t talk,” the father said.

His younger brother, Patrick James Doka, said that after spending seven hours trekking to the last point of the river that connect to Rriver Kaduna without result, the governor of the state Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa came to their house having employed the service of divers from another community to help in the search.

“The people that the governor brought are from Kagoma in Jema’a Local Government Area. We want to recover all the corpses before the burial because they went to the farm together. We cannot bury the two and leave the other two.  We most get them all,” Doka said.

Explaining how the incident happened, Doka said, “You know we are not living here. The father of the kids has built his house in Janruwa here in Kaduna and the children don’t like staying with him, but prefer staying with their grandparents.

“We were planning for a wedding in Barnawa, but when my father sees me he said that he wanted to have a meeting with us, that I should call my brothers and sister. I said since he is the one that wanted to see us, he should use his mobile phone to call everybody. When he called them, they came on time and the discussions centered on how we will be visiting them regularly.

“According to our farther, we are not visiting them regularly and we promise visiting them regularly. The children left for the farm when we were still in the meeting. Gimba, Bossan and Zichat are my elder brother’s sons while Ibro is the son of our uncle, but they always leave together.

“From what we heard from people, a woman was crossing the river with her child and they begun to follow, holding their hands four of them. In the process, they fell into the river. Was there confusion among them, we don’t know. Did someone push them inside the water?  We don’t know, what happen there; it’s only God that knows.

“Later, one of their aunties went to the farm, but could not see the children. She called me that she did not see the children on the farm and that she heard a woman saying that she saw two children struggling inside the river. Our mother, who is their grandmother, on hearing it, was greatly shocked. But we calmed her down, because of her high blood pressure.  We told her that they may not be the ones they are talking about, because they are four.  We followed the eastern by-pass and contacted all our relations they were not there,” he said.

Explaining further, he said  “when we got to the river bank our cousin sister saw Gimba slippers and started crying. That was when we knew that our children were drowned. They called the Sarkin Ruwa, he came and went inside the river, came out and said that the people in the river are angry with him that they even cut the palm of his hand.

“According to the Sarkin Ruwa, the bodies were supposed to be released that Sunday. We gathered people, went there in the rain and prayed till night. The following morning, we saw the youngest one among them and there was no sign  that the boy has been inside the water for two days. We only saw fresh blood coming out of his nose. When our last born saw the corps of the child, he slumped and I had to rush him to the hospital. While in the hospital, they called me that they want to bury the boy in the river but I said no. I said that the four children were together, and they must be found before the burial.

“We had no any agreement with anyone when our children were going to the farm. They can’t kill our children and expect us to bury them there in the river. We took the corps to the mortuary. The following day, they released the eldest with a butchered head. We took him to the mortuary.

“Once the remaining two are found, we will now decide what to do, but for now, we leave everything to God,” Doka added.