A sad accident happened on the Niger River when a boat overturned. This happened near the Jebba Dam in a place called Gbajibo Community, which is in Mokwa area of Niger State. The accident took place on a Tuesday.
The boat was carrying 300 people who were going to celebrate a special event called Maulud. They were traveling from a place called new Gbajiko in Kwara State to another place called old Gbajiko in Niger State. Many of the people on the boat were young folks from Kwara State. The accident happened late at night, around 8:30 pm.
Fortunately, about half of the people, nearly 150, were saved during this scary moment.
A lot of groups came together to help. The Niger State Emergency Management Agency (or NSEMA), the Niger State Ministry of Transport, the National Inland Waterways Authority (or NIWA), and the Mokwa Local Government Emergency Committee worked hard. Brave local divers and other people in the community also joined the search. Thanks to their efforts, 16 bodies were found the day after the accident.
Abdullahi Baba Arah, the Director General of NSEMA, shared some news. He said that by Thursday, they found 20 more bodies, making it a total of 36 found. He mentioned, “As of 6 pm today, we have so far recovered about 36 bodies of those who drowned and died in the river. We recovered 16 yesterday and 20 today. And they have all been buried.”
He also said they are still looking in the river to find more people.
Some reasons why this accident happened include: the boat carried too many people, it was a weak wooden boat, there weren’t enough life jackets, and they were traveling at night when it’s dark, around 8:30 pm. These are not safe ways to travel on water.