By Olu Samuel, Lokoja
The National Inland Waterways NIWA has confirmed a boat accident involving no fewer than 200 market women from Kogi state.
The Head of Media Department of NIWA,Suleman Makama who confirmed the incident on Friday said that the Market women were on their way to the market in Niger in Friday morning riding on a boat when it capsided along the Dambo-Ebuchi sections of River Niger, Killing yet to be ascertained number of the women.
“It’s true that there was a boat mishap on Thursday involving quite a number of women going to the market in Niger state,we are still investigating to ascertain the number of people involved as well as what led to the accident.” He said.
According to eyewitnesses, the boat, which belonged to one Musa Dangana, was carrying over 200 passengers, including market women and farm labourers, en route to the Katcha weekly market in Niger State.
As of the time of this report, eight bodies were said to have been recovered, while search and rescue operations continue to locate the remaining passengers.
He said that he is still waiting for clearance from the management before he will issue official statement where details of the incident would be provided.
Asked how long that would be Makama said that he can’t give a specific time frame but promised to get back to our correspondent as soon as possible.
Punch recall that the Managing Director of the Nigeria Inland Waterways, NIWA , Mr. Bola Oyebanji has identifed human errors,, , drugs and disobedience to the the rules and regulations as the major causes of boat mishaps that has occurred in past three years .
Oyebanji disclosed this while fielding questions from the members House Representatives Committee on NIWA who were on oversight function to the Headquarters of the Authority in Lokoja on Wednesday. said that the NIWA was committed to the safety of the Nigerians using water transportation .
“Ninety- nine percent of the mishaps on the waterways were a result of human errors, noting that research has shown that the operators are committing avoidable mistakes which shouldn’t have caused havoc. He said
He noted that some of the operators lived on drugs to influence their activities to make them high and eventually make unpardonable mistakes .
Oyabanji added that some operators are repugnant to following rules and regulations,stressing that “imagine wooden boats taking over 150 to 200 pessagers at a go over and above it’s capacity”
He said that the Transportion code requires revalidation because the operators have not been strictly following the code recently signed while some and are not providing required life jackets for their passangers.