The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) says it has begun preliminary investigations to unravel the remote cause of the death of over 103 persons in a boat accident at Egbu village in Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State.
The Director-General of the agency, Mr. George Moghalu, disclosed this while speaking with the newsmen in Ilorin on Sunday after an on-the-spot assessment visit to the incident scene.
The deceased reportedly died after the boat conveying them, while returning from a marriage ceremony, capsized in the middle of the river.
Moghalu said he was in the community to find out the cause of the unfortunate accident and put plans in place to stem future re-occurrence.
The NIWA boss, while condoling the community and the entire nation, revealed that the preliminary investigation had shown that the accident happened as a consequence of avoidable human error.
He said from the initial reports, even though the investigation is still ongoing, revealed that the vessel that was involved in the accident was on the water outside the approved stipulated time of operation.
“There is a standard protocol that after 6 p.m, we don’t allow boats to operate on our waterways.
The NIWA boss added that, “Because experiences have shown that over 90 to 95 percent of accidents on our waterways happened in the night or very early hours in the morning.
“The reason is very simple, these vessels don’t have night navigation aides, and the vessel in question was heavily overloaded.
“There was no reason for the vessel to carry over 250 passengers; and apart from the passengers, there were other luggage.
“Most unfortunately also, all the passengers were not wearing life jackets and it was on a very raining night and the downpour came with wind,” he said.
Moghalu also confirmed that NIWA donated life jackets to the community and pledged to provide more life-saving equipment to the community.
He explained that in the course of his discussion with the people, the community-made basic requests, including the provision of a jetty.
