At least 20 dead in Kogi boat mishap, many missing

By Richard Elesho

As the nation prepares for her 65th independence anniversary, no less than 20 people have been confirmed dead in a boat mishap that occurred on Tuesday at about 4:30pm. in the Ibaji local government area of Kogi State.

An eyewitness who is also a farmer in the area, James Otoga told journalists that the sad incident occurred in the evening of Tuesday, 30th September 2025.

According to him, the boat that was fully loaded with people departed from the Onugwa community in Ibaji heading to the Ilushi market, but it capsized on the way, leaving yet to be known 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 while 20 bodies have been recovered so far, and more of our people are lying lifeless beneath 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 , nobody can authoritatively say this is the actual number of casualties. 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. ”

It would be recalled that in the last year, there have been numerous boat mishaps in Kogi, Niger and other riverine states where many people lost their lives.

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 .