PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
More facts have emerged about the deaths of South-East London Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Gabriel Diya, his daughter and son in a pool at the Club La Costa World Complex, Spain, on Christmas eve.
Diya, Comfort (9) and son, Praise (16), who were on vacation in Spain as tourists, had drowned in the facility’s swimming pool on December 24.
However, Diya’s wife, Olubunmi (49), and their younger daughter, Favour (14), who were also on the trip, were not harmed.
According to reports, initial investigations revealed that the 52-year-old pastor and his two children drowned because “they could not swim’’.
Favour had returned to their holiday apartment alone without Comfort, which alarmed their parents.
In a bid to find out about her sister’s whereabouts, the parents dashed to the pool and found Comfort in “difficulties’’ under the water.
To save her, the pastor and his son, Praise, jumped into the water but both also drowned, the report also said.
Rescue efforts by a resort worker, who dived into the water, also were unsuccessful as he was left with no option than to recover the three bodies.
He also experienced some “difficulties’’ reaching the surface and exiting the pool, resort authority said.
However, widowed Olubunmi was said to be calm amid the triple tragedy as she continued in fervent prayers to bring them back to life, said witness Josias Fletchman, who performed CPR on the three victims with some staff members of the resort.
“The mum was praying for them to come back to life. She was calm. She was touching their bodies. She continued praying even after the ambulance people arrived and had stopped trying to revive them.
“She exercised her faith to the limit. I was performing CPR on her husband, but I’m a believer and I prayed as well,’’ he said.
“She strengthened me in the way she reacted. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
The pool was one of the several on the sprawling holiday complex, but was being little used because it was not “heated’’ like others.
The deceased pastor was the resident cleric in charge of the Open Heavens branch of the RCCG, Charlton, South-East London, United Kingdom.
Meanwhile autopsies performed at Malaga’s Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed that the pastor and his two children died by drowning.
Report also said pathologists did not find signs of any external injuries or evidence that they had been poisoned, during the examinations while nothing was also found pointing to Favour suffering any chlorine poisoning.
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