'I pray his body is found at worst' - Mother of boy suspected to have drowned at Madina cries

The mother of nine-year-old Abdul Shakur, a boy suspected to have drowned at Madina after Sunday's rains, is hoping her son is found alive while praying that his body is retrieved if her son has truly drowned as suspected.

The last of Abdul Shakur, a class three pupil resident of Madina-Libya Quarters, was seen on Sunday May 10, 2020, when he was sent to deliver food to his aunt.

According to his aunt, she earlier asked the mother of Shakur who sells porridge to send her some 'koose' which she will use to break her (Ramadan) fast.

She added that while cleaning the surrounding of her shop after the rain on Sunday, she saw a towel laid on top of a small bridge in front of the entrance to her compound with a polythene bag containing 'koose' and one of the pair of a sandal which turned out to be that of Shakur lying on top of it.

Suspecting something was not right, Laila tells GhanaWeb that she immediately called Shakur’s mother who confirmed that she had sent him to deliver 'koose' to her earlier.

The family say their immediate suspicion has been that young Shakur may have lost one of his sandals to the water flowing through the drain in front of his aunt's house and in his quest to retrieve the sandals may have been dragged into an adjoining bigger drain a few meters away.

The National Disaster Management Organisation and volunteers from the Madina-Libya neighborhood have for the past three days been searching through the drains and around the area looking for the body of young Shakur.

When GhanaWeb joined the team who had been following the route of the drain at Haatso, the Regional Director in Charge of Fire and Man-Made Disaters, Alhaji Mohamed Abubakar Tsafaram, confirmed that the rescue mission has so far not yielded any positive result.

He said the operation to find the young boy is one that has all hands from the district, through regional to the national office of NADMO on board.

"Early this morning we started from Madina (Libya Quaters) to this section of the drain. We have combed through the drain up to this area, another team from the operations division of our headquarters are also ahead of us. Currently they are around Dome..."

He appealed to individuals living around drains to also be on the lookout for the body of Abdul Shakur as NADMO continues its search.

When GhanaWeb visited the family house of Shakur, a gathering was already in place as host of other relatives and neighbours had met at the house to wait on news from the search party.

With a face of devastation and sadness, the mother of Abdul Shakur who spoke through one of his aunt’s said she is hopeful her son will be found alive and in a worst case where her son is actually dead, she prays his body will be found for a proper burial.

“We pray that wherever he is God should let us find his body so we can conduct a proper burial and if he is alive too we pray for his safe return.”