No fewer than 29 persons have been confirmed dead in a boat accident that occurred in Gausawa, Borgu Local Government Area, in Niger State at about 11:30am on Tuesday.
The boat was carrying 90 people, including women and children, on its way to pay condolences in another village.
The accident was caused by overloading and collision with a tree stump.
It was discovered that the passengers were not wearing life jackets when the boat capsized.
An anonymous source in the state Ministry of Transport, who requested anonymity because he did not have authority to speak with the media, said that the boat passengers were not wearing life jackets, claiming that if they had, more people would have been rescued.
“The passengers were obviously not wearing any life jackets because if they were wearing them, more, if not all of them, in the boat would have survived the accident.
“Borgu is very far, and a lot of these passengers do not like to wear the life jackets for reasons best known to them,” the source said.
As of the time of filing this report, 29 corpses had been retrieved, with 50 persons rescued, while two people are said to be still missing.
The Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, NSEMA, Abdullahi Baba-Arah, confirmed the accident, saying a search and rescue operation was still ongoing.
“NSEMA has received a report of a boat accident at a community called Gausawa in the Malale area/ward of Borgu LGA.
“According to our desk officer who led the search and rescue operations, the boat took off from a community called Tugan Sule in Shagunu ward with 90 people on board, which included women and children, heading to Dugga for a condolence visit.
“The incident happened on Tuesday at about 11:30am, and the cause was attributed to overloading and a collision with a tree stump.
“Search and rescue operations are still ongoing for possible recovery of missing persons,” Baba-Arah said.
This marks the second boat accident in Niger State in 2025. The first one occurred in July and was ascribed to a tree trunk.
The National Inland Waterway Agency donated life jackets in Mokwa during the Mokwa flood, which killed more than 200 people.
