13-year-old survivor narrates how 8 students died in Weija boat accident
Enyonam Ekpe, who currently stands as the only survivor of the Weija drowning incident has recounted how she narrowly escaped death when eight others failed to.
On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, the death of eight school students plunged residents in the Weija Gbawe municipality in Accra into a state of mourning.
They drowned after the boat they were travelling in capsized in a river at Wiaboman.
Interacting with JoyNews on Thursday, 13-year-old Enyonam revealed that the tragedy could have been avoided should the canoeist have heeded to her advice.
According to the teenager, there was a shortage of canoe riders on that fateful day at 5:40pm, hence she decided to utilize the service of a young paddler together with some other children.
Upon boarding the canoe, she informed the paddler the vessel could not accommodate the number of individuals who had decided to commute.
“I told him that there are a lot of people in the boat so he has to let some get down and take them later,” she said.
But according to Enyonam, the young paddler whose identity currently remains unknown failed to take her suggestion into consideration and began the journey.
It appears all was fine until that moment things got out of hand.
Traumatised Enyonam could not tell exactly when the canoe lost balance and capsized, but all should recall was that at that very moment, she lost grip of her brother she journeyed with.
While the others failed to stay afloat, Enyonam managed to grab hold of some part of the boat up until the moment she was rescued by a good Samaritan.
Currently, the bodies of the dead children have been recovered but one, whose status is unknown, remains missing.
Rescue efforts are underway to locate the missing person.
This is not the first time in the year that school children have lost their lives in pursuit of formal education in unsettling conditions.
In January this year, eight students from the Atikagome Community in the Sene East District of the Bono East Region drowned in the Volta Lake en route to school.
