Tragedy struck on Friday morning at the Federal Government College, Keffi in Nasarawa State, as two students drowned in a nearby river.
Sources at the school said three male students on Friday morning breached the school rule by going to the river to swim while their colleagues were at the assembly hall.
happened, a school official, who does not want to be quoted for not being in a position to speak to the media, said; “Three male students of the Federal Government College in Keffi, Nasarawa State, went to swim in a nearby river.
“One of them dived into the river and was drowning. Then his colleague went to rescue him, but he too drowned because they both didn’t know how to swim.
“It was the third student who ran back to the assembly hall to break the tragic news to his friends.”
Meanwhile, a teacher at the school who also pleaded anonymity to avoid sanction by the school management, told PREMIUM TIMES that the school fence that was washed away by flood allowed students to stray from the school compound unnoticed.
Before the Friday incident, many parents and guardians had accused the school authorities of poor administration.
They said in 2020, a part of the female dormitory was razed, reportedly leading to the death of a student.
One of the parents, who also does not want to be quoted, told PREMIUM TIMES that; “We pay N5,000 per student every term as Parents Teachers Association (PTA) fee. This fee has been on for a long time now but there is no visible sign of what the PTA and the school authorities use this fund for.
“This is because students’ welfare, facilities and discipline remain a huge challenge as students reportedly break bounds frequently.”
Meanwhile, the school’s principal, Ahmed Isah, did not respond to enquiries by this reporter as several calls to his mobile phone were not answered.
But the director of press and public relations at the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) in Abuja, Bem Goong, confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with our reporter on Saturday.
Similarly, the chairman of the school’s PTA, Kefas Kaura, also confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES on the phone.
He said; “Two SS3 students went to have their bath or so during the school assembly. They drowned in the river on Friday morning.
“This set of SS3 students are the most stubborn we have ever produced in the history of this school; they don’t attend prep, only the female students do.”
He explained that a parent to one of the deceased students who hailed from Jos, Plateau State, had arrived the school on Saturday morning to collect the remains of his son.
“The school management gave the father of the student that died a bus and some staff to convey the corpse to Jos this morning (Saturday). While the remains of the other student who was a Muslim were interred yesterday (Friday) in Keffi,” the PTA chairman disclosed.
Meanwhile, the PTA chairman decried what he described as the poor attitude of some parents to their children and wards’ upbringing, accusing them of abandoning their responsibilities for the school.
He said the school had de-boarded some “wayward” students as a disciplinary measure.
“Most parents don’t have time for their children. So, when they become wayward, these parents push the responsibility of managing them to the school. That is wrong,” Mr Kaura said.
