Olu Samuel
Twenty persons have been confirmed dead in a boat mishap that occurred on Tuesday at about 4:30pm in Ibaji local government area of Kogi State.
An eye witness account and a farmer in the local government area, James Otoga, told journalists that the sad incident occurred in the evening of Tuesday, 30th September 2025.
According to him , the boat fully loaded with people departed from Onugwa community in Ibaji heading to Ilushi market, but capsized leaving yet to be identified numbers of people dead
“The boat was fully loaded with our people going to market for the first of October celebration. Only five survival have surfaced yet and 20 bodies have been recovered so far and more of our people are lying lifeless beneath the river Niger.
“Even those who came for a burial in Onugwa and returning back to Ilushi were also missing, we are yet to confirm the number of people onboard and those who survived” he stated.
Confirming the incident the Chairman, Ibaji local government area, Honourable Ugeh Emmanuel through a telephone conversation with journalists described the incident as the most disastrous in the history of the local government, saying many people have lost their lives in the accident.
“As I am speaking with you now , no body can authoritatively say this is the actual number of casualties. And again we can not even ascertain the number of people onboard right from their departure destination.
“This is a very serious accident , the boat have not even near Ilushi when the mishaps occurred around 4:30pm. Most of the victims were moving to Ilushi for the cerebration of first October which has been a tradition in the community before they met their untimely death”
Recall that in the last one year there was numerous boat mishaps in Kogi, Niger and other riverine states where many people lost their lives.
On 23rd December,2024, a wooden boat carrying 60 passengers from Kupa area of Look ja Local government area to Kacha market in Niger state capsised leading to the death of 19 passengers whose bodies were later recovered.
This has prompted the management of NIWA banned passengers without safety jacket from travelling on boats while operators of such boats are currently being prosecuted.
Effort to reach the Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Bola Oyebanji and Assistant General Manager (AGM), Corporate Affairs, Suleiman Makama proved abortive as their cell phone could not be reached .
They have not also responded to text messages sent to them on the development as at the time of filling this report.