Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The rain had barely stopped when Jamil Maikasuwa decided to take his son to school himself. It was a small act of fatherly care on a Wednesday morning, the kind of decision made without a second thought. He had picked up his 13-year-old son, Alhassan Jamil, on his motorcycle to drop him off at Ihyau El-Burhan Academy in Phase 3, Gwagwalada. The boy had been reluctant to go with him, accustomed as he was to being taken to school by a commercial cyclist. But his father insisted, and they set off from their Old Kutunku residence shortly after the early morning rainfall.
At about 7:30 a.m., they approached a double-cell culvert near the Mobil filling station along the Old Kutunku-Market Road. The floodwater had almost completely covered the culvert, a rushing brown torrent that had surged from a nearby FADAMA farm with a force that residents said was sudden and overwhelming. Maikasuwa noticed the danger immediately. He applied the brakes, intending to turn back rather than risk crossing the flooded channel. But his son, sitting behind him, did not understand what was happening. He saw only the water, rising and angry, and fear took over. He jumped off the motorcycle.
In that instant, the boy fell directly into the flooded culvert. The water seized him instantly, pulling him under and carrying him away with a violence that left his father helpless. "Immediately he jumped down from the bike, I quickly pushed the bike aside and tried to grab his hand to save him, but unfortunately, the flood swept him away," Maikasuwa recounted at his Old Kutunku residence, his voice carrying the weight of a memory he will never escape. He had reached for his son's hand. He had almost touched him. But the current was too fast, too powerful, and it swallowed the teenager before he could pull him to safety.
Alhassan Jamil was the eldest of Maikasuwa's four children. He was a brilliant student who had consistently come first in his class from nursery one through primary four. His father, who serves as the Special Assistant to the Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council on Domestic Affairs, had every reason to be proud of him. The boy's school bag was still strapped to his back when the flood took him.
The search for his body began almost immediately, but the floodwaters had carried him into a network of rivers and waterways that made recovery difficult. Local fishermen and divers were mobilised to comb the area, but their efforts had yet to yield results. Some residents living close to the riverbank reported seeing what they believed to be the boy's body floating downstream, his schoolbag still strapped to his back, a detail that has haunted everyone who heard it. "We hope that the corpse will be recovered so we can give him a befitting burial," Maikasuwa said, the words carrying the quiet desperation of a father who cannot even begin to mourn properly until he has his son's body back.
The tragedy is not an isolated incident. Maikasuwa's elder brother noted that the drowning was the second such occurrence in four days. Just days earlier, four people had drowned in a canoe accident while crossing a river to a farm in the same area. Only one of those four bodies had been recovered. The pattern is chilling, a reminder that the rains this season have brought not just discomfort but death to communities along the capital's waterways.
Mrs. Rabiat Kasim Ikwa, the wife of the Gwagwalada Area Council chairman, was among the first to visit the family to offer condolences. She expressed shock and sadness over the loss, but words can do little to ease the grief of a family that watched their son disappear beneath the floodwaters. Some residents who witnessed the incident said the flood had surged suddenly from the FADAMA farm, giving them no time to warn the father and son before they reached the culvert. The speed of the water left no room for hesitation, no margin for error, and no second chance.
For Maikasuwa, the guilt will be a lifelong companion. He had taken his son to school himself that morning, a decision made with love, and it had ended in the worst possible way. He had tried to turn back. He had pushed the bike aside. He had reached for his son's hand. But the flood was relentless, and now he is left waiting for a body that the river has not returned.
The incident has renewed concerns about the danger posed by fast-moving floodwater around culverts and waterways during the rainy season. The double-cell culvert near the Mobil filling station had become a death trap, covered by floodwater that had surged without warning, and the community now knows its name. As the search continued into the following days, fishermen and divers moved through the waterways, hoping to bring a grieving family the closure they desperately need. For the Maikasuwa family, the wait is a torment, a daily reminder of the hand that slipped away, the water that was too fast, and the son who was taken in the time it takes to fall.
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