Mother of boy who died on college journey says no one has given solutions

The mother of a 17-year-old boy who died on a school trip after getting into difficulty in the sea says she has still not been given any answers over what happened a month after the tragedy happened.

Samuel Oluwagbenga was on a trip with 49 of his fellow Uxbridge College pupils to the seaside village of West Wittering in West Sussex at the start of July when he died.

Lifeguards on jetskis raced to save Samuel after he was spotted getting into difficulty in the water at around lunchtime.

He was airlifted to St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester where he sadly died soon afterwards.

Samuel Oluwagbenga, 17, was on a trip with 49 of his fellow Uxbridge College pupils to the seaside village of West Wittering in West Sussex at the start of July when he died

Now, a month after her son’s death, his mother Taiwo has said: ‘Nobody has given me any answers. We are yet to get an update from the school’

Now, a month after her son’s death, his mother Taiwo has said: ‘Nobody has given me any answers. We are yet to get an update from the school.’

‘My son went and he didn’t come back. Fifty children went and only my son didn’t come back,’ the single mother-of-two added.

Samuel had only been in the UK for a year but had adapted quickly. He was making friends at school, attending church every weekend and was a futsal coach in his spare time.

He was good at IT and wanted to study the subject at university, even using his skills to help out at his Sunday church group.

Taiwo told Sky News: ‘Samuel looked after me, he didn’t allow me to suffer.’

She added: ‘Despite being a single mother, Samuel never let me feel like I was alone. He supported me throughout.

‘He would cook for me, drop his brother to school, I have asthma and Samuel would always check if I was okay and when he would notice I was struggling to speak, he would go to the fridge to bring me my inhaler.

Emergency services (pictured) raced to the beach at West Wittering after the incident 

West Wittering in Sussex is popular with tourists and can draw up to 20,000 visitors a day 

‘He always looked after his brother and now, his brother asks where Samuel is and when he will come back?

‘My youngest doesn’t want to go home, he doesn’t want to go to our house.

‘He doesn’t want to stay there. If we go back home, he will start to cry because he constantly asks where is his brother that he plays with?’

A spokesperson from Sussex Police said that they ‘understand their need for answers’.

They added: ‘We are continuing to work in conjunction with our partners at the Health and Safety Executive and have provided the family with regular updates on our enquiries.

An air ambulance (pictured at the scene) took Samuel to hospital where he died shortly after 

Police and coastguard crews helped a member of the public at West Wittering beach after the incident on July 2

‘Although Samuel drowned, the reasons how this occurred will be formally determined by the coroner at inquest.

‘As part of our investigations to date, we have taken witness statements from a number of people present on the day, developed a detailed timeline of events, and are reviewing relevant policies and procedures. We will continue to liaise with the family throughout this process.’

Uxbridge College gave their ‘condolences and sympathy’ to Samuel’s family and told Sky News: ‘We want the family to know that they can continue to contact us at any time and we will update them as soon as we have any further information that the police confirm we are able to share with them.

‘We will continue to do everything we can to support them at this difficult time.

‘Together we await the findings of the police investigation to understand the circumstances of the events surrounding the tragic accident.’

MailOnline has approached Sussex Police and Uxbridge College for further comment.