A fresh student of the Rivers State University (RSU) has reportedly drowned in the Olympic swimming pool of the University of Port Harcourt.
Reports say the student identified as Emmanuel, who until his death, was an undergraduate of RSU’s Department of Marine Engineering was at the swimming pool in the company of three friends.
A source within the institution said that, “one of them, on sensing that the guy has died, told the others that his mother was calling him, and he would like to go and see her, [then] took off.”
It was gathered that the corpse of Emmanuel has been deposited at University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital morgue while the two other guys have been reportedly arrested and detained at the Choba police station for questioning.
Spokesperson of the University of Port Harcourt, Sammy Kpenu, who confirmed the incident.
Meanwhile, management of the University of Port Harcourt has banned, what it described as pleasure swimming, in its Olympic-size swimming pool in the university’s Abuja campus.
Vice Chancellor of the Institution, Prof. Owunari Abraham Georgewill, in a statement on Monday said the move became necessary following the unfortunate death of a year-one student of the Rivers State University (RSU) who used the facility for leisure swimming on Sunday, September 12 alongside his three friends.
Georgewil wrote: “We wish to inform all staff and students that the University of Port Harcourt swimming pool is an Olympic size swimming pool and henceforth we are placing a ban on pleasure swimming in the pool.”
“Kindly bear with us as this is done to forestall further unfortunate incidents as it happened yesterday Sunday 12th September 2021. We lost a student of Rivers State University who came to swim for leisure with his three friends.”
