Another Boat mishap has occurred in Niger state with 25 people rescued and 11 bodies recovered out of the 200 people on board the boat from Mundi to Gbajibo in Mokwa local government area of the state
News gathered that the accident occurred Tuesday night when the boat hit a tree subsumed by the rising water level on River Niger in kyadya axis of the local government area.
The Director Media and Strategy, of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Habibu Abubakar Wushishi has announced that yesterday , that the incidence occurred Tuesday about 8.30pm
While saying 200 passengers were on board the boat ; he said search and rescue has since commence but added that the cause of the mishap is yet to be ascertained .
He said the ministry is working assiduously with the ministry of transport, Niger State Emergency Management Agency NSEMA, National Inland Water Ways to unravel the circumstance(s) of the accident.
Meanwhile the Director General of the NSEMA Abdullahi Baba Arah has also confirmed that the boat took off from Mundi Village and was conveying passengers comprising mostly women and children for Maulid celebration at Gbajibo village
The Chairman of Mokwa Local government council Jibrin Muregi confirmed to Newsmen that already 11 Bodies were recovered, 25 people rescued alive while search and rescue was still ongoing for the remaining 164 people .
It could be recalled that the boat mishap is the second this year in the same village as the first incident occurred when market women numbering 60 few months ago were involved in a mishap.
Niger state government has severally warned the local boat operators to comply with the law that made it mandatory for passengers to wear live jackets before boarding any boat on the water ways in the state.
Findings however revealed that the passengers in the mishaps were not wearing live jackets making it easy to record high fatality.
