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Friday 25 June 2010

Tragedy As US-Based Nigerian Kids Drown In Neigbour’s Swimming Pool-------www.ngrguardiannews.com/

Tragedy As US-Based Nigerian Kids Drown In Neigbour’s Swimming Pool
SATURDAY, 26 JUNE 2010 00:00 FROM LAOLU AKANDE, NEW YORK NEWS - NATIONAL
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ON the eve of father’s day in America, tragedy struck in the family of a Nigerian couple in Jacksonville, in the State of Florida, when their two young children drowned and died in the swimming pool of a next door neighbour.
According to sources close to the family and local U.S. media reports, Gerard Chinonso Ibeagwa {6} and his three year old sister Blessing Chinonyesen, were found dead by the neighbours inside the pool last week Saturday under circumstances now being described as “mysterious and intriguing.”
The next door home-owner who found them dead in the pool just returned from work when the gruesome discovery was made.
The parents of the two Nigerian children Mr. and Mrs Mark-Anthony Ibeagwa reportedly did not have any other children and were said to have waited some time before they gave birth to the young siblings, whose death is now raising questions in Florida. Investigation by the State government’s Children and Families Department has begun to know where the parents were when their children got to the neighbour’s backyard swimming pool.
The six-year old Gerard was said to have just completed Kindergarten and was headed for elementary school, having attained the required age of six. Gerard and his sister Blessing are to be buried today Saturday at the Resurrection Catholic Church in Jacksonville, Florida.
A press statement circulated by US-based Nigerians close to the family stated that “on the eve of Father’s Day, Saturday, June 19, 2010, two innocent children at the prime of their lives aged six and three years old drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool under mysteriously and intriguing circumstances in Jacksonville, Florida. At the time of their accidental death, Gerard Ibeagwa and his sister Blessing Ibeagwa were the only children of their parents, Mr & Mrs. Markanthony Okey Ibeagwa originally from Nigeria.”
Local news reports reported that the town’s Sheriff’s Office said the residents in neighbour’s house came home “a little after 10 p.m. Saturday to find the children, a six-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl, unresponsive in their pool. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department took the children to the hospital where they were declared dead.”
Another local news report said the children’s mother collapsed Sunday morning and was taken to a hospital but returned later in the day. Neighbours were quoted as saying they didn’t see the children outside by themselves.
“Just when they were going in and out with their parents,” one neighbour said. “I never saw them out wandering the streets or anything.”
According to a spokesman for the Florida State Department of Children and Families, John Harrell, the agency is investigating the case. “We want to see if there was any neglect there,” Harrell was quoted by a local newspaper.
Harrell said there were no other children at the house. He said investigators are trying to determine if the children had been left alone and if so, for how long. However the press statement distributed by friends and family of the affected Nigerian family said: “This is a very unfortunate, highly emotional and extraordinarily sad event in the history of Nigerians in the United States of America. Accordingly, such an extraordinary event will require an extraordinary response from all of us as a people.”
The statement urged Nigerians and others “to voluntarily donate towards the burial and funeral expenses of Gerard and Blessing Ibeagwa of blessed memory.” Funds from such donations would also be used, according to the press statement, to “assist the distraught and grieving parents on the complex legal challenges ahead.
The statement listed two Nigerian men, Dan Okenu and Prince Ike Muogbo, who circulated the statement, as contact persons.

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