Ugly war of words breaks out over Costa Del Sol pool tragedy as British mother whose husband, son and daughter drowned hires a lawyer and blasts hotel while insisting her family COULD swim and a fault was to blame

*Olubunmi Diya’s husband Gabriel and her son and daughter died in Spanish pool
*Mother has insisted something must be ‘wrong with the pool’ as trio could swim
*Fuengirola-based lawyer Javier Toro has been hired by Mrs Diya after the tragedy
*Hotel Club La Costa World has said an investigation found no issue with the pool

The ‘utterly heartbroken’ mother whose husband and two children drowned in a Costa del Sol swimming pool has hired a top lawyer to dispute claims they could not swim.

Olubunmi Diya, 49, said yesterday that ‘something must have been wrong with the pool’ that ‘made swimming difficult’ as she challenged the allegation her husband Gabriel, 52, and children Comfort, nine, and Praise-Emmanuel, 16, were not skilled in water.

Her words put the spotlight back on the six-and-a-half feet deep pool at Club La Costa World near Fuengirola, Malaga, where it has been alleged there were problems with the pump system.

However, resort chiefs have repeatedly claimed there ‘was no malfunction of any kind’ at the pool after Spanish Police found Comfort’s swimming hat in the suction system.

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The police have also conducted an ‘exhaustive’ investigation which they said found no fault with the pool.

Praise-Emmanuel and Gabriel jumped into the pool after Comfort lost her footing and got into difficulty. Daughter Favour, 14, had been playing with Comfort moments beforehand.

The children went into the pool using the steps but found themselves dragged into the middle, which was deeper and called for help when they could not get out.

In a statement to Sky News yesterday, she said her family has been left ‘utterly heartbroken’ by the tragedy.

‘The whole family, all five of us went to the pool together and were all present when the incident occurred,’ she said. ‘The children were not left unattended. We followed the instructions displayed by the poolside at all times.

‘My daughter did not fall into the water. My husband went in via the steps trying to hep 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.’

A witness who helped perform CPR on pastor father-of-three Mr Diya told on Wednesday how his wife prayed and touched her loved ones’ bodies to try to will them back to life.

Josias Fletchman, from Manchester, said in a moving account of how he tried to save them: ‘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.

‘She strengthened me in the way she reacted. It just wasn’t meant to be.’

Mr Diya was head of Open Heavens, a London branch of the Redeemed Christian Church of God network founded in Nigeria. He also ran his own property business.

His widow, an assistant pastor, is a systems analyst who owns her own software firm.

 

THE GUARDIAN