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Boats Mishaps Claim 13 Lives in Niger
Olabode Adaramola, Minna
Tragedy struck in Niger State on Tuesday as eleven people died in boat mishap at Magama local government of the state.
The incident occurred in the early hours of the morning on the fateful Tuesday near an abandoned Dam project being constructed by EEC Construction Company on behalf of the Federal Government in River Kontagora area of the state.
National Wire learnt that the victims, mostly married women and young girls were travelling on board the boat in the waterways, but unknown to them that river Kontagora , a tributary of River Niger had over floated it’s bank on the other end of the river following an heavy down pour the previous night.
It was further learnt that the unfortunate victims lost their lives while on their ways to harvest some farm produce on the fateful morning.
Further checks revealed that the boat mishap was allegedly caused by a tide in the waterways on the fateful Tuesday morning, prompting the passenger boat to capsize midway into the ill-fated journey.
An insider source at the Niger state Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) told iour reporter Friday in Minna that as at the time of the boat mishap that the deceased victims were allegedly travelling against the tide.
The source who talked to National Wire on condition of anonymity further disclosed that the incidence of boats mishap at the uncompleted Kontagora Dam had become a recurring decimal the state every year.
The source recalled that no fewer than Seven people suffered similar fates last year near the spot where the boat mishap took place on Tuesday morning, arguing that the earlier the federal government completed the Dam’s Construction works that had been abandoned between 2007 and 2015, that the better for the people of the state.
Meanwhile, the Director General, Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) Mallam Ahmed Ibrahim Inga, has confirmed the incident on Friday in Minna during a brief interactive session with the news men.
He said, so far, eight corpses of the victims of the Boat mishap have been recovered by Divers while efforts were still being made to recover the bodies of the remaining victims.
In a related development, two other people have also been confirmed dead in a Boat mishap at New Busa, in Borgu Local Government of the State.
Inga said that the victims died last week while on board the ill-fated boat when they were travelling in the waterways from one part of the Council Area to another.
