Officials in Benue State in north-central Nigeria said that more than 30 people were believed to have died after a wooden boat capsized at the Buruku crossing on the River Katsina-Ala on Saturday, October 3.
Tema Ager, information-unit head of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (Benue-SEMA), told the News Agency of Nigeria that 125 passengers have been rescued and more than nine remained missing. He said the figures were provisional while officials checked accounts provided by community leaders, relatives and survivors.
Ager put the number of people involved at an estimated 138. Some people who got on at the riverside had not yet been fully identified.
Ager had told news outlet Leadership that four bodies have been recovered. Benue-SEMA’s estimate of more than 30 deaths also included people who could not be accounted for.
Local divers continued searching the affected section of the river on Monday. Ager said motorcycles beneath the surface and other debris were hampering the operation.
The boat was reportedly carrying 38 motorcycles when it capsized.
Benue Commissioner for Marine and Blue Economy Denis Iyaghigba ordered authorities to take the boat’s captain into custody and hold him while the matter was investigated.
The Benue State Government has meanwhile formed an inter-ministerial panel to investigate the accident’s immediate and underlying causes and propose measures to improve safety at river crossings.
The passengers were mourners on their way back from a burial, with most reportedly from Mbayon in neighbouring Gboko Local Government Area. Early accounts put the number aboard at more than 70 passengers, together with over 30 motorcycles.
Buruku Local Government Chairman Raymond Zege told Vanguard that the boat was overloaded.
“In the middle of the journey, the engine of the boat failed, and they became panicky,” said Zege.
Iyaghigba said preliminary reports indicated that a powerful current drove the boat into an abandoned barge near a bend in the river.
He also gave the boat’s owner seven days to clear the barge from the crossing point, warning that the state government could confiscate it if it remained there.
The Buruku crossing was also the site of a fatal capsizing in January, when five people died and one remained missing.
Benue subsequently announced safety requirements including a ban on overloading, a limit of one vehicle per boat, and a daily 20:00 end to water transport.
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