Background:This research work focused on ascertaining the presence of virulence and antibiotic-resistant genes inEscherichia coli(E. coli) O157 and non-O157 recovered from drinking water sources.Methods:Identification ofE. coliO157 and non-O157 was carried out using standard serological and PCR techniques. Virulence genes (rfbO157,fliCH7,stx1,stx2,eaeandhlygenes) and antibiotic-resistant gene (BlaTEM) were detected using PCR method on selected isolates (n= 15) from different water sources which demonstrated multiple antibiotic-resistance in a previous study.Results:The serological identification result revealed that a total of 68 out of 382E. coliisolates, recovered in a previous work, were identified as a presumptiveE. coliO157. These included 19.1 %, 21.7 %, 33.3 %, 14.3 % and 9.1 % ofE. coliisolates from wells, boreholes, sachets, streams and pipe-borne respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant difference in the frequency ofE. coliO157 from the different water sources (p> 0.05). Also, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between theE. coliisolates andE. coliO157 (Pearson’sr= 0.996). Detection of virulence and antibiotic-resistant genes showed that only 46.7 %, 33.3 %, 33.3 %, 93.3 %, and 66.7 % carriedrfbO157,fliCH7,stx1,stx2 andrpoSgene respectively. In contrast, all the isolates possessedhlyand BlaTEMgenes but none hadeaegene.Conclusion:The presence of one or combination of these genes in these isolates depicts their virulence and resistance nature.