The bodies of two children—a boy and a nine-year-old girl—were discovered in a drainage channel in Minna, Niger State, following a heavy downpour on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in the Tunga area of the state capital, where intense flooding submerged roads and overwhelmed drainage systems. Initially, residents believed that only the girl had been swept away by the floodwaters. However, the grim discovery of a second child’s body—a boy—was made when the girl’s father arrived to identify her remains.
According to sources, the young girl, the only daughter among three siblings, had been sent to Tunga Market—about two kilometers from their home—to buy ingredients for soup. She was accompanied by her 11-year-old brother. Though it had been raining since morning, they left with an umbrella during a temporary break in the downpour.
While returning home, the rains resumed with greater intensity, quickly flooding the streets and drains. Motorists were forced to park as the area became impassable. During the chaos, the girl reportedly slipped and fell into an overflowing drainage channel.
As she was swept away by the raging water, her brother cried out for help from nearby residents. However, due to the force and volume of the floodwaters, no one was able to intervene. Witnesses watched helplessly as the girl was carried away.
The boy ran back home to inform their parents. Later, the girl’s father was contacted and asked to identify her body, which had been found in a tunnel on Mandela Street—over five kilometers from where she was swept away. To his shock, he also found the body of another young boy, confirming a second fatality from the flood.
When contacted by PUNCH Online on Tuesday night, the spokesperson for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Hussaine Ibrahim, expressed sadness over the incident.
“We were not aware of the disaster, but my team will visit the girl’s family in Tunga tomorrow to get more information,” he said.
