2 Nigerian student-athletes drown in Canada, US on same day

Nigeria has lost two of its students in the diaspora in two strikingly similar swimming tragedies that occurred in Canada and the United State (US) on the same day.

Oluwatoni Onikeku a 20-year-old undergraduate and Jamal Ottun a 17-year-old secondary school student both died while swimming on Sunday the 12 of July 2015.

Onikeku was a student-athlete and member of the track team at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Lowell, United States.

The political science major drowned while swimming with friends in the Deerfield River, Deerfield, United States.

He died on the spot.

On the same day, Ottun, a student at the Wallington County Grammar School in South London, drowned in the Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island, Canada.

Like Onikeku, he was a student-athlete and member of the school’s rugby team.

The UK-based teenager was swimming with his teammates while they were on a Rugby tour in Canada.

Ottun’s school described him as “an extremely popular and talented Year 12 student” while Onikeku’s coach, Gary Gardner said “there wasn’t one person on the team that he didn’t sincerely care about and showed it.”