The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, has confirmed that at least eight persons on Friday morning were recovered dead after a boat accident that occurred near the Dambo-Ebuchi section of the River Niger.
Boat carrying over 200 people capsizes on River Niger along the Dambo-Ebuchi sections of River Niger.
The boat capsized on Friday morning, November 29, along the Dambo-Ebuchi section of River Niger while carrying traders and farmers heading to Katcha for the weekly market. Local divers are leading rescue efforts, with eight bodies recovered so far,…
This comes less than two months after a similar accident in Mokwa LGA, Niger State, where 42 lives were lost.
On 1 October, another boat carrying over 200 passengers capsized, with 150 reportedly rescued.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of NIWA, Mr Bola Oyebanji, recently identified human errors, drugs and disobedience to the rules and regulations as the major causes of most boat mishaps.
Oyebanji stated this while fielding questions from the members of the House of Representatives Committee on NIWA who were on oversight function at its Headquarters on Wednesday in Lokoja.
He reaffirmed NIWA’s commitment to the safety of Nigerians using water transportation.
“Ninety- nine percent of the mishaps on the waterways are a result of human errors; research has shown that the operators are committing avoidable mistakes which shouldn’t have caused havoc,” he said
Oyebanji noted that some of the operators lived on drugs to influence their activities to make them high and eventually make unpardonable mistakes.
He added that some operators were indifferent to rules and regulations.
He said, “imagine wooden boats taking over 150 to 200 passengers at a go, over and above its capacity”.
