From Musa Muhammad Kutama, Calabar
A young man, Brother Sonny, has drowned in the Ishaya River, Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State, after reportedly going to bathe at midnight penultimate Wednesday.
The incident has thrown the community into confusion and grief. Narrating the tragedy to The Triumph, Sonny’s younger sister, Joy Philips, said her brother left home at midnight to bathe in the nearby river but never returned.
“A tragic moment has yet again happened in my family, as we cry over the loss of my elder brother, Sonny. He went to the nearby Ishaya river at midnight to bathe and vanished. Till now we are still looking for him in the river. He hasn’t bathed in the river before, and cannot even swim,” she said.
By Wednesday afternoon, neither Sonny nor his body had been found. Villagers, according to Joy, have expressed spiritual beliefs about his disappearance. “We are told he is still undergoing trial underwater and his body will be released by 12 midnight. We are heading back to the river with hope of retrieving his body. The question is, why will a son of the soil drown in his own local river?” she lamented.
She added that the police had not yet been contacted, insisting, “If police want to interrogate us, they should come to us. We cannot go to them now.”
Community members remain hopeful as search efforts continue.