A five year old boy, simply described as Chidera Takon has drowned while swimming in a river in Ikom, Cross River State central senatorial district.

The incident, according to DAILY POST investigations occurred in the morning of Wednesday at the Atimaka stream, a tributary that emptied into the Cross River in Ikom.

Chidera accompanied his mother to the river but walked some distance away from the mother, swimming. He was suddenly swept away.

An eye witness who gave her name simply as Bessy said that “the mother of the deceased, Helen Takon, an Ikom resident had gone to the river with her son when the incident occurred.”

She said the mother makes living by scooping and selling sand from the stream.

“When the boy sauntered off with his playmates, his mother did not know that he had gone a little away from her even as she was still scooping the sand.

“By the time she was alerted, the stream’s current had swept the child away. Frantic efforts made by sympathizers to rescue the boy yielded no positive effort as he was drowned before help could reach him”, the source said.

The mother of the deceased is a widow with two kids.