TRAGEDY 90 people are still missing while 10 are feared dead in a boat accident in Kogi State
At least 10 persons lost their lives yesterday when a 300-capacity wooden boat capsized at Ebe village in Lokoja Local Government Area of Kogi State. Other passengers aboard the boat are still missing.
Ebe is the home town of the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon Abdulrahaman Dangana. Over 100 passengers, who boarded the boat, were said to have sunk into the River Niger as a result of turbulence allegedly caused by the clash between a security patrol team and a boat conveying oil bunkers.
According to a source, the security patrol team chased a boat conveying drums of crude oil which was sighted on the River Niger about midnight on Tuesday into River Burara.
The source added that the unfortunate incident was as the result of the diversion of the passenger boat from the original channel onn River Niger to River Gurara owing to the alleged poor dredging of the River Niger by the National Inland Water Ways Authority (NIWA). The passengers were said to be coming to Lokoja market from Ebe village in Kuba-North community in Lokoja.
The General Manager, Corporate Affairs of NIWA, Mr Tayo Fadile, refused to speak on the accident.
After several calls, he only gave a terse response through a text message which reads: “At meeting, will call you later.” Fadile, however, did not call at press time.
A resident of Lokoja and a social critic, Shaaba Abdullahi, blamed the accident on the inability of the Federal Government to complete the dredging of the lower River Niger.
He said if the lower River Niger had been properly dredged and maintained, the boat would not have navigated to Gurara waterway. Abdullahi urged the Federal Government to set up an independent investigation team to dig into the last dredging contract along Baro in Niger State and Lokoja in Kogi State.
NEW TELEGRAPH
No comments:
Post a Comment