More bodies are being recovered from the Gbajibo River, Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, after a wooden boat carrying 300 passengers capsized, on Tuesday night.
At press time, the water marshalls of the National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, with the collaboration of the Nigeria state’s National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, and local divers have recovered 70 bodies, rescued 150 persons while the search for the remaining missing passengers was still ongoing.
This came as President Bola Tinubu sent condolences to the Government and people of Niger State over the boat accident.
Meanwhile, Governor, Mohammed Bago has expressed sadness over the incident and vowed to redouble efforts to enforce laws in line with water transportation to avoid frequent waste of lives and property.
Lagos Area Manager of NIWA, Mrs. Sarat Braimah, who spoke on the incident, accused the operators of the ill-fated boat of illegal operations as they sailed at 8:30p.m., which was against the water transportation code which has outlawed night sailing.
Braimah, who absolved NIWA of complicity in the tragic incident following a public outrage over what was described as the negligence of the authority, disclosed that the four water marshalls deployed to the Gbajibo River where the incident occurred had already closed from duty for the day and left.
She said that the Marshalls went to the other side of the jetty while the ill-fated boat was loading without their knowledge.
Meanwhile, NIWA has attributed the unfortunate incident to flagrant disregard for transportation code by the boat operators such as overloading (the wooden boat carried 300 passengers), use of sub-standard boat which is a wooden carved boat without necessary navigational aids, lack of wearing of safety vests and night sailing which has been banned.
Braimah said: “NIWA just constituted river marshalls, who were posted to every state and Niger State in particular has 24 water marshalls while in Mokwa LGA, where the incident happened, they have four Marshalls.”
She lamented the prevalence of night sailing in the North despite its ban which she said was a major challenge for NIWA.
“NIWA will now make it 24-hour surveillance on waterways in that area in order to prevent reoccurrence.”
According to her, the recently gazetted transportation code launched by NIWA and cascaded to every state contains penalties for infractions of safety standards.
“Last month, NIWA was everywhere on sensitization of the citizens on this code. But, unfortunately, this tragic incident happened.
“From now on, night sailing is our target. We are going to recruit more river marshalls who will be working on 24- 24-hour basis. This will hopefully deter people and boat operators from night sailing” Mrs Braimah said.
President Tinubu in a statement by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, commiserated with the families of the victims and prayed for the repose of the souls of the dead.
The President also directed NIWA to investigate the spate of boat accidents in Niger State and across the country and devise modalities to check the trend.
He ordered NIWA to expand the scope of its surveillance of inland waters to ensure our people’s safety and prosecute boat operators violating the ban on night sailing.
President Tinubu thanked emergency workers and local divers who were working to find the remaining people.
Gov Bago talks tough on frequent mishaps, loss of life, property.
Meanwhile, Governor Bago in a condolence statement through his Chief Press Secretary, Bologi Ibrahim described the incident as unfortunate and disheartening.