Death At Pool: RCCG Pastor's Wife Reveals How Her Family Drowned

The RCCG pastor, Gabriel Diya drowned in a swimming pool in Spain with two of his kids while the family was on
vacation. The Police ruled it as an accidental death, stating that they died because they could not swim.

However, the late Pastor’s wife, Olubunmi Diya has come to refute the claim and tell what really happened. She even went ahead to hire a top lawyer as she said she was “disturbed” by the “inaccurate information” issued by the police which claimed the trio had a “lack of swimming expertise”.

Heartbroken, Olubunmi insisted that there was something wrong at the pool that led to the death of her husband and kids who drowned in the pool.
She said;

“The three of them knew how to swim. We never informed the police or anyone that the family members could not swim. The whole family, all five of us went to the pool together and were all present when the incident occurred. The children were not left unattended.

"My daughter did not fall into the water. My husband went in via the steps trying to help the two struggling while I ran to the nearby apartments shouting for help to assist my husband.

"By the time assistance came, the three of them were under the water. I believe something was wrong with the pool that must have made swimming difficult for them at that point in time.”

Allen Wilson, one of the leading swimming pool experts, who investigated the death at the pool of the pastor and his kids alleged that human error and poor design contributed to the tragic incident which occurred at the famous Costa Del Sol in Spain. He said;

“I have investigated many deaths of children and adults abroad for UK and foreign tour operators including TUI and Thomas Cook. Due to the traumatic nature of this incident, my company would offer to travel to Spain for the family to carry out a report, free of charge.

"In this case it appears from the family statements and witness accounts all to point to an excessive suction vacuum. I have seen the news reports and images and video of the pool with police divers and the actual pool appears to have been badly designed with just one outlet at the bottom of the pool.

“In my experience, this is likely to have been a contributing factor in the deaths. The daughter appears to have got into trouble along with her father and brother who seem to have been dragged underwater which can be a sign of a huge vacuum.

“This is usually caused by human error from turning off the skimmers – an overflow system that takes surplus water away – causing massive suction from the outlet at the bottom of pool during cleaning of pool filters or maintenance.

“The pressure of suction and current becomes enormous and when it starts dragging water in the pool towards it there is often no escape unless the pump is turned off manually.

“Swimming away from the current becomes very, very difficult if not impossible once it gets you in its grips. If there had been two outlets the vacuum pressure would have been halved but from what I have seen if you swam near the one vacuum you wouldn’t get away.

“In my experience abroad many swimming pools have poor design or maintenance and standards are not the same as in the UK they are constructed to local standards instead which are not as stringent.

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“Police are also not equipped to do this type of investigation it has to be done by specialists. There needs to be an immediate and impartial investigation by an independent swimming pool expert to examine the pool and its surroundings to find out what went wrong.”