Man, son, neighbour drown in well

A man, his 15-year-old son, and their neighbour have been reported to have drowned mysteriously in a narrow well in Oju town in the Oju Local Government Area of Benue State.

It was gathered from an eyewitness that the trio met their untimely death when one of the deceased, a popular car wash owner in the town, identified as Matthew Ekpengbe, asked his son to fetch water for him from a nearby well to enable him to wash a car.

He said, “The boy went to fetch the water but, in the process, lost the fetching bucket in the well. And in an attempt to retrieve the bucket, he slipped and fell into it.

“His father saw what happened and immediately beckoned on a neighbour to join him to rescue his son from the well. Unfortunately, both of them also mysteriously ended up falling into the same narrow well.

“Alarmed by what happened, bystanders rushed to the scene to rescue the three of them, but none of them made it out alive.

“They were all dead when they were eventually brought out of the narrow well, which has been serving people in that area for a long time.

“The deaths of the three of them still remain a mystery because of the strange way they met their deaths.”

According to sources, the deceased were immediately buried by their family members, given the mysterious manner in which they died.

The Benue State Police Command was yet to release any statement on the incident, as efforts to speak with SP Catherine Anene, the Public Relations Officer, were unsuccessful.