Five children died in Hanya Danbushiya, Kaduna North Local Government Area, on Tuesday when their canoe capsized in River Kaduna.
The children, who were all canoe peddlers, were said to be returning to the river bank to pick other passengers in the early hours of the day.
It was gathered that residents of the village immediately organised a search party to look for the bodies of the children and immediately recovered three.
Aminu Ibrahim, leader of the search party, gave the names of the victims as Aliyu Mohammed, 13; Shehu Ismaila 13; Ibrahim Ladan 14; and his brother, Musa Ladan, 15, and Mustapha Hamad, 15.
“We know that these boys were very good canoe paddlers and are trusted by those who use canoe as a means of transport. They left early with full passengers and on their way coming, from what we learnt, the canoe hit an object in the river and then capsized,” Ibrahim said.
On his part, the Village Head of Doka in Danbushiya, Alhaji Musa Liman, described the incident as unfortunate.
He expressed disappointment over the response by the state Fire Service, which he said failed to respond to the villager’s distress call when contacted.