Pond of death in Angwan Tiv, Agyaragu, Obi local government area, Nasarawa State. (Photo credit : Beauty John)
By Collins Sunday – Lafia
Following the death of many indigenes and non-indigenes alike resident in Angwan Tiv, a community in Agyaragu community of Obi local government area, a few Kilometres away from Lafia, The Dune in a fact-finding mission has been able to unravel the killer stream which has claimed many lives.
The stream, residents described as ‘pond of death’ has claimed the lives of over 15 people in a very mysterious manner.
Recent of these tragic incidents is the lost of two children of one Mr Nicholas Kwaghtser in the killer stream which is surrounded by a farm land.
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The stream has over the years served as a source of irrigation to farmers within the locality but the small, stagnant stream has mysterious features. The water changes colour occasionally, its generates thunder storm, rainbows shoots out from the water and other unimaginable scenes.
What is worrisome about the stream is that visitors from neighboring communities who go the stream to bath, wash clothes, do irrigation often get drown and die.
The different colours of “Pond of Death” captured by Beauty John.
Dr Ayuba Akwadu, the Paramount Ruler of Agyaragu community, Zhe Migili, told The Dune that it was after the death of two young boys of the same parents that he was made to understand what has been happening.
“I thought it was the first time but they said it has been happening and nobody has ever reported such a thing to me and now what we might do on our own way is to appeal to our people not to go there again.”
A Fulani woman who was seen at the stream when The Dune visited the area said residents used to bathe and wash items in the middle of the stream but only to a certain point, adding that they had since stopped as the stream continued to expand, thus becoming a dangerous place.
“We are here to wash plates, clothes and bathe by the side of this stream, but we don’t drink it anymore because the stream had begun to take human lives. There was a lady who once entered here and couldn’t come out again. She was from Akwanga on a visit to Agyaragu and decided to join her friends to bathe in the stream, but she died.”
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“There is only one person who enters the pond now to remove corpses. He is one old man who calls himself a fisherman”, she said.
When contacted, Rita John, an elderly woman who told The Dune that she grew up in the community said: “people who have died here are about fifteen persons, but for us the Tiv community, this is the first time we are losing two children.”
“Sometimes ago, some people came to fish and in the process something came out from the water and returned and the people died thereafter”, she explained.
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Nicholas Kwaghtser, the man whose two children got drowned in the stream told this Newspaper that he was saddened by the incident, while calling on the authorities concerned to cordon off the area or fence it to prevent children from going there.
Explaining how his children’s corpses were finally recovered and buried, Kwaghtser said, “an elder brother of one Bakari, a businessman who owns many shops here in Agyaragu market is always the first person to know if such an incident occurred.”
“We quickly rushed to him and unfortunately he was not around, but we came with some two boys working with him. When they came, the fire service officers were also there to assist. As the boys arrived, they could not jump into the water immediately, but had to say certain incantations before they entered and Godwin Tehemba (one of the boys) was discovered dead with his brother”, he said.
Residents of the community are appealing to the Nasarawa state government to come to their aide and find a lasting solution to the issue to avoid losing more lives to the pond.
