The National Safety Investigation Bureau NSIB has commenced investigation into the boat accident that occurred at Kpada community in Pategi Local Government Area of Kwara State, on Monday night 12 June 2023.
This is just as the President, Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATON), Dr Gani Tarzan Balogun consoles the families of the victims.
During a news briefing in Abuja, the Director General NSIB Engr. Akin Olateru said, reports gathered thus far, revealed that, the boat was said to have conveyed not less than 250 passengers from a village called Egboti in Niger State.
“Information received also reveal that 106 fatalities have been recorded and the total of 144 passengers have been rescued so far”.
He called on the general the public to avail the bureau information in form of pictures, video or recording evidences to help assist in conducting a comprehensive investigation of the boat accident recently in Nigeria State.
“We are committed to swift response to accident and serious incident occurrences through our well-equipped Command and Control Centre. Accident reporting has also been simplified through our Mobile Application, which was introduced to interface with the public and make it easy for them to communicate with NSIB digitally”.
Olateru noted that, “the purpose of accident investigation, however, is not to apportion blame or liability but to prevent future recurrence of similar incidents”.
President, Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATON), Dr Gani Balogun, has described the boat accident as horrifying and sad.
In a condolence message to the state governor, Dr. Balogun stated that the incident has once again cast a dark shadow over commercial boat services in the country which has been accidents free in a long time due to consistent monitoring and compliance ecosystem by National Inland waterways Authority( NIWA).
“We at ATBOWATON wish to condole the families of the victims and the government of Kwara state. Even though the boat does not belong to our registered body or any operator known to us, boating is a confraternity, and our heart goes to late captain and owner too”.
Going forward, the ATBOWATON leader informed that he would mobilize the members of the association in New Bussa, Niger state, and other sister bodies to physically visit Kwara state to evaluate the development and thereafter, visit the governor of Kwara state to share ideas on how to mitigate such incidents in the nearest future.
“We shall proffer solutions, insist on obedience to extant regulations, and advise that there should be efforts to clear logs and debris out of the water ways”.
Dr. Balogun emphasized that, “ATBOWATON frowns at night sailing. It is not only dangerous and against the law, passengers not also wearing life jackets or poorly produced ones, endangers the lives of both passengers and the captains. So, we shall see how serious a sensitization campaign can be deployed to arrest future occurrences”.
