A swimming competition turned tragic after four young men lost their lives in a drainage channel while attempting to outswim each other.
The young men were identified as Bashir Sani, 28; Nasirudden Tasi’u, 25; Usman Ubale, 26; and Yakubu Muhammed, 22.
What began as a friendly contest quickly spiralled into a fatal chain of events, as two participants got trapped in the water, prompting two others to dive in after them. All four ultimately drowned in the process.
According to the Kano State Fire Service, the victims had entered a water-filled drainage for the competition, unaware of the danger posed by the blocked and flooded channel. The situation worsened when rescue attempts by their peers failed, leading to multiple casualties.
The spokesperson of the fire service, Saminu Abdullahi, said a distress call was received around 1:48 p.m. yesterday from a concerned resident, Rabiu Yusif, who reported that four individuals had been trapped in the drainage.
Abdullahi explained that two of the men initially entered the water to swim, but became trapped due to the poor condition of the drainage. The third and fourth victims drowned while trying to rescue the others.
Rescue officials were immediately dispatched to the area but by the time they arrived, two of the victims had already been pulled out by local residents, while fire service personnel recovered the remaining two.
Unfortunately, all four victims were confirmed dead upon retrieval and their bodies were handed over to officers of the Dawanau Police Division, led by SP Abdulkadir Albasu.
Abdullahi warned the public against unsafe swimming activities in construction-affected waterways, noting that the blocked drainage, part of an ongoing railway project, played a role in the tragedy.
