Niger boat mishap: N-HYPPADEC condoles victims’ families

The Managing Director, National Hydro Electric Power Producing Areas Commission (N-HYPPADEC), Abubakar Sadiq Yelwa, has led his management team to sympathise with the families of victims that lost their lives in the recent boat mishap that occurred on the 64th Independent Day,at Gbajibo community in Mokwa local Council of Niger State.

He expressed sadness over the unfortunate accident just as the dearth toll raised to 42 persons, though, the search for the bodies of more victims continued by the volunteers.

Yelwa explained that the commission is working assiduously to end this kind of avoidable boat mishap with lots of casualties in collaboration with regulatory agency National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) and States government to curtail the menace, adding that N-HYPPADEC only gives intervention.

The N-HYPPADEC boss had maintained that the recent accident was due to overloading and water waves leading to boat break but insisted on lack of life jackets usage by the passengers provided to them by the commission after last year’s boat mishap in the same community where 31 people lost their lives.

Yelwa, who was represented by the Director of Operations, Iliyasu Abdullahi Wara, called for the enactment of laws with stringent measures to criminalize boat drivers who make night journeys, overload boats, and non-use of life jackets.

The representative of the Niger State government and Commissioner for Transportation, Hadiza Ladidi Idris Kuta expressed sympathy with the victims’ families and the two states government of Niger and Kwara states, advocated for the prosecution of boat drivers who causes mishaps leading to deaths or life imprisonment.

The Commissioner lauded the N-HYPPADEC for its various interventions and the proactiveness of the rescue team in saving lives and searching for the bodies of the victims since the incident occurred which is still ongoing and stated that Governor Mohammed Umar Bago was shocked and saddened over the incident.

Kuta pledged that the Niger state government will provide a rescue boat, water ambulance, commutation gadgets, and the establishment of water marshalls to help in forestalling future reoccurrence of such incidents.

Speaking on behalf of the community and member of the rescue operation, Mohammed Tauheed confirmed that the boat mishap was caused by heavy winds that led to the breaking of the boat from the engine location.

Tauheed disclosed that 40 corpses were recovered as of Thursday 27 that is 16 on Wednesday and on Friday 5 as the search continued.