Deborah Akinyosoye
Thirteen corpses have so far been recovered from the boat mishap that occurred in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State on Saturday.
Scores are, however, still declared missing.
Director General, Niger State Emergency Management Agency, (NSEMA), Alhaji Abdullahi Baba Arah who confirmed the figure to journalists in Minna yesterday said many others are still missing.
“So far, we have been able to recover 13 corpses while search for other passengers is still on.
“We are yet to determine the remote cause of the mishap but we will get the details later.
“Search for other corpses is still ongoing as villagers in the area are helping out in this regard,” the Director General declared.
Our Correspondent had earlier reported that the incident occurred along Kwata village around 11:45 am on Saturday when traders loaded with goods were heading to Zumba for the weekly market day.
The driver and few passengers were immediately rescued and one of them who was admitted in General Hospital Kuta had been treated and discharged.
Meanwhile, local divers and other volunteers are still at the spot of the incident trying frantically to rescue more victims dead or alive.
The real cause of the accident is yet to be ascertained but in the past especially on market days, overloading and total disregard to all safety guidelines had always been attributed to such occurrences which have remained unabated.
On different occasions, life jackets had been distributed to operators of water transporters by the state government, National Hydro Electric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, (N-HYPPADEC) and NIWA among others but without any corresponding steps of enforcing the usage.