The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has launched an investigation in the incident of boat accident in Ebe community, Kupa South local government area of Kogi State on Friday, with a vow to prosecute the captain and owner of the ill-fated boat.
In a statement by the Authority, a copy of which was made available to LEADERSHIP, NIWA’s managing director, Bola Oyebamiji, said the boat operator deliberately disobeyed the extant law on waterways.
According to the statement, the ill-fated boat operated from an abandoned jetty at 1am on Friday, with intent to beat NIWA’s tight surveillance on the waterways.
NIWA, however, disclosed that it has sent an emergency rescue team to search for the remaining missing passengers.
“Preliminary findings by NIWA indicated 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.
“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.”
Meanwhile, the statement said that the management team of the Authority was leading and coordinating the rescue operations as well as making sure the survivors of the boat mishap receive urgent medical attention.
The agency said it shall, in due course, release more information after the investigation has been concluded.
“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,” NIWA MD delcared.
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