Kaduna — The bodies of the two teenage secondary school students who drowned around 1 pm Saturday in River Kaduna have been found.

In a telephone chat with Daily Trust yesterday, Alhai Sani Abdulsalam, father of one of the deceased, Umar, said his son's corpse was found around 5pm Sunday near the bridge about 27 hours after he drowned, while Sagir Tahir Aliyu's body was found around the Unguwar Rimi abattoir about 6am yesterday. According to him, no government official, security agent or official of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) came to the scene of the incident. Sani said the corpse of his son, Umar, just came up to the surface around 5pm, adding that the divers merely took it to the shore.

On the other hand, Sagir's corpse was found by a fisherman around 6am yesterday, Sani said. "He was buried around 8am," Umar's father told Daily Trust. When our reporter visited the Jaji road residences of the two bereaved families, they were many sympathizers who came to condole the family.

It would be recalled that Sagir and Umar, aged 13, as well as their younger siblings went to the river instead of returning home after attending the Qur'anic school on Saturday. After taking their bath, they all returned home but on getting home, Umar said he had lost some money around the river. They returned to look for the money but didn't find it and in the process, Sagir's feet were caked with mud so he decided to wash them by the river bank where he slipped. An attempt by his friend to rescue him led to the death of both. SEMA officials Sunday said they were not aware of the incident.