OLAKUNLE MARUF reports on a boat accident which occurred in a Sokoto community penultimate Tuesday and the agonies of those who lost family members in the accident.
It was a sad day penultimate Tuesday at Gidan Magana, a serene community in Shagari Local Government Area of Sokoto State where a boat capsised on the Shagari Dam, claiming the lives of 29 passengers, while two persons survived,one of them a seven-year-old girl, Muzeeba.
The boat trip was like every other one before then, during which the villagerstook to the next village to scavenge for firewood. They usually board the boat without safety measures like putting on life jackets.
Accidents were not common, so nobody made wearing of life jackets a priority, but this one turned out to be a fatal one.
According to the chairman of the local government, Aliyu Dantani, who spoke to Sunday Tribune in a telephone interview, though the total number of passengers in the boat was not known, bodies of 29 victims were recovered, including five children.
“We have recovered 29 bodies so far. Twenty-three of them were women while six were men. They were all young people. We have also dispatched local drivers within the community to search for bodies of some other victims,” Dantani told newsmen.
Bereaved families were distraught and hardly consolable. One of the bereaved fathers, Ibrahim Muhammadu Sani, lost five of his children to the boat mishap. When Sunday Tribune called at his home, he spoke in an emotion-laden voice describing the incident as one tragedy too many.
“I was relaxing behind the house here when someone rushed to me shouting that a boat accident had just occurred and all the passengers were drowned in the process.
“Although I didn’t know when they left, but I was aware that they often go to the next village as usual. I left them at home. I didn’t know when they left.
“In actual fact, I couldn’t join them in the river as I was just sitting down close by, watching the rescue mission. All the children in our compound were involved in the accident.
“When they brought all of them and I saw the corpses of my children lying down on the ground, you can only imagine the situation.
“The driver of the boat according to findings tried all his possible best, looking for assistance but all efforts to avoid the accident was not successful.
“I lost Mariam, Habiba, Umar, Atiku and Farida to the unfortunate incident. They all wanted to go and fetch firewood from the other village (Falke) but all met their untimely death on the way,” he lamented, adding that he has accepted his fate.
Mallam Magaji Muhammad, who also lost four of his children in the mishap, described the day as the worst day of his life.
He said he was sleeping at home when he was woken up by somebody who had come to tell him about the accident.Muhammad said he was aware of the usual trip to the next village through the river, but was not informed on the said day.
“I know they normally go to the next village to buy firewood and sell here in our village. But on that day, I was sleeping at home when they left.
“When we all rushed there, the boat had already capsised and all the passengers on board (without any life jackets)got drowned, except one little girl who was rescued. Even as I am talking to you, the boy that operated the boat has not been seen.
“Our belief is that when he saw the extent of the accident, he ran away despite having two siblings among the victims.
“The oldest one among my children lost to the accident was about 18 years old, while the youngest one was about 8 years old. Their names are Awawu, Aisha, Aminat and Khadija,” he said.
One of the local divers who helped in the rescue operation immediately after the accident said the incident happened in a deep area which affected the rescue mission of the divers. He said he was alerted by the alarm raised by locals immediately after the accident and being an experienced diver, he joined other volunteers to rescue as many of the victims as they could.
“I had to look for a jerry can which I climbed on to enter the water and I was able to rescue the only survivor, and recovered many other bodies,” he explained.
Passengers in a boat
Immediately after the accident, there were allegations and counter allegations over the preferred number of passengers that the boat was supposed to carry.
The District Head of the community, Alhaji Abubakar, who said he was shocked by the tragic news of the accident, however, denied the insinuation that the boat capacity was overstretched.
“According to the information I gathered, all the passengers on board including the driver were 31. While the driver ran away after the accident, we were able to rescue only one girl alive while the corpses of the remaining 29 people had been buried in accordance with Islamic rites,” he said, adding that the accident occurred after hitting a Date tree inside the river.
However, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), argued that the boat was overloaded.
While reacting to the incident, Mallam Abubakar Umar, Director of Disaster Managementof SEMA, said the boat was originally designed to carry 12 passengers, adding that there were 31 passengers on board the ill-fated boat which must have caused it to capsize.
“Even when boats are not overloaded, statutorily, passengers are supposed to have their life jackets on when travelling on water, but none of the passengers had life jackets on,” he said.
Mallam Umar, while speaking on safety measures, such as life jackets said the state governor had more than a year ago promised to provide them to local communities where they are needed, but till date, the jackets are yet to be delivered to SEMA office.
He, however, assured that the agency had sent a new memo to the appropriate authority to ensure quick release of the safety jackets and other safety equipment to avert such calamity in future.
When Sunday Tribune located the only survivor of the boat tragedy, it was difficult speaking with her. The 7 year-old girl, Muzeeba, could only keep staring at people, unable to utter a word, probably as a result of shock associated with the incident.
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