More than 30 people are feared trapped underwater following a boat mishap at the Buruku crossing point of River Katsina-Ala in Benue State, three days after a wooden canoe capsized while ferrying passengers across the river.
The Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) said the ongoing operation at the scene could no longer strictly be described as a rescue mission, given the length of time the victims had remained underwater.
The wooden canoe, reportedly carrying more than 100 people, capsized around midday last Saturday while crossing the river, leaving several passengers and motorcycles trapped underwater.
The Head of Information Unit of SEMA, Tema Ager, disclosed that two additional bodies were recovered from the river on Sunday during an assessment of the accident scene.
He said 38 motorcycles also went into the river with the ill-fated boat, with each motorcycle reportedly carrying three people.
According to him, the agency was working to establish the number of people involved by tracing the passengers carried by individual motorcycle riders.
Ager said most of the victims were mourners returning from a burial and that the agency had been gathering information from surviving motorcycle riders to determine who had boarded the boat.
He said, “The ongoing operation can no longer be called rescue because anybody you find underwater now after three days is a dead person. Yesterday (Sunday), on the spot when we went there, two bodies were discovered.”
The SEMA official also disclosed that efforts were ongoing to recover the motorcycles that sank at the accident site.
“They had 38 motorcycles that sank in one place. The canoe association members were trying to remove them. They have been able to remove 10 motorcycles, remaining 28,” he said.
Ager said the number of passengers on the ill-fated boat remained difficult to establish because not everyone who boarded the vessel was recorded.
He explained that the 38 motorcycles involved in the incident were carrying three people each, putting the number of people associated with the motorcycles at at least 114.
“The 38 motorcycles involved were carrying three people each. If you put that number together, you will have not less than 114 people,” he said.
He, however, stressed that the actual number of passengers could be higher because some mourners travelled independently to the burial and joined the boat at the riverbank on their return.
“You have to remember they were mourners who were coming back from a burial. We took a statistic of every rider. All the riders were alive. So we asked them, ‘Who and who did you carry?’ They were able to identify those they carried. So those whom they could not identify were taken that they were missing underwater,” he said.
According to him, the presence of other people at the riverbank waiting to cross also made it difficult to establish the exact number of passengers.
“But you know that other people are also always at the water banks waiting for opportunity to cross. So those of them and those others who attended the burial on their own also joined in the boat.
“We cannot give account of those ones. So it is likely that 30-something people are still underwater there. So they are still searching for them,” he said.
Ager further disclosed that the ill-fated boat was newly built and was reportedly on its maiden journey when the accident occurred.
He attributed the mishap partly to the overloading of the boat with passengers and motorcycles, urging operators to reduce the number of people and goods ferried at a time.
He also called on river transport operators to ensure that passengers wore life jackets, saying the use of personal flotation devices could significantly reduce fatalities in boat accidents.
“So we advise them strongly to be using life jackets when they are ferrying people across the river,” he said.
On measures to prevent a recurrence, Ager said government could continue sensitising riverine communities on safety practices but acknowledged the difficulty of enforcing regulations without a dedicated enforcement mechanism.
“So we say they should minimise the loading of boats. And they should always use life jackets. But you know you can give advice to those people. But you cannot force them to do it. Maybe except you have an enforcement team,” he said.
He added that life jackets had previously been provided to boat operators by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and SEMA, but the safety equipment was apparently not being used.
