NIWA speaks on Kogi boat mishap
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According to Oyebamiji, the boat capsized in the waters of Ebe community in Kupa South Local Government Area of Kogi in the early hour of Friday. “Preliminary findings by NIWA indicate 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. He, however, said NIWA has sent an emergency rescue team to search for missing passengers.
By Chiazo Ogbolu
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has said the boat that capsized in Kogi on Friday sailed with unsubstantiated number of passengers from an abandoned jetty at 1.00 a.m. with intent to beat its tight surveillance on waterways.
The Managing Director of NIWA, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, in a statement on Friday added that the boat, a wooden craft was also operated by an unknown boat operator
According to Oyebamiji, the boat capsized in the waters of Ebe community in Kupa South Local Government Area of Kogi in the early hour of Friday.
“Preliminary findings by NIWA indicate 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.
He, however, said NIWA has sent an emergency rescue team to search for missing passengers.
“To unravel the cause of the accident, 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,” he said.
He added that the top management team of NIWA was leading and coordinating the rescue operations as well as making sure that survivors of the boat mishap would receive urgent medical attention.
He said that NIWA would, in due course, release more information on the incident.
” We are shocked by this incident despite all our efforts to sensitise Nigerians about safety measures on waterways.
“It is not quite long when 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.
“We 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 but now, sadly, this happened.
“NIWA will investigate this accident and will prosecute the boat captain and the owner for deliberate disobedience to the extant law on waterways,” he said.
(NAN)
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