By Sylvanus OBASI
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has set up an investigation panel to ascertain the real cause of the accident, the total number of passengers onboard, and the owner of the craft, this is even as the top management team of NIWA led and coordinated the rescue operations as well as making sure the survivors of the boat mishap receive urgent medical attention.
Recall that a merchant boat capsized in the waters of Ebe community in Kupa South Local Government Area of Kogi State in the early hour of Friday, 29th November, 2024.
Speaking on the accident, the Managing Director of NIWA, Mr Bola Oyebamiji said “We are shocked by this incident despite all our efforts to sensitize Nigerians about safety measures on waterways. Not quite long, we unveiled the National Waterways Transportation Code, visited communities and stakeholders to make them have a buy in to our strategy to curb accidents on water, and also discussed with State governors in Nigeria to partner with us in providing safe water crafts to help move people and goods safely across our waterways and now sadly, this happened.
“NIWA will investigate this accident and will prosecute the boat captain and owner for deliberate disobedience to the Extant law on waterways, “the NIWA, MD assured.
PLATFORM REPORTERS gathered that preliminary findings by NIWA indicates that the wooden boat was travelling to the Katcha market in Niger State when it suddenly went under due to poor visibility and overloading. There are no details of lives lost so far.
The wooden craft, operated by an unknown boat operator left with unsubstantiated number of passengers, from an abandoned jetty at 1am, Friday morning with intent to beat NIWA’ s tight surveillance on the waterways.
