A wedding at the weekend ended in tears when a boat ferrying returning relatives and guests capsized in the Niger River in the early hours of Monday, June 12, drowning at least 103 people, many of whom were said to be children.
The wedding was held in the village of Egboti in Niger State. The boat capsized at about 3am. It took hours before people realised what had happened.
The overloaded boat was ferrying the wedding guests to Kwara State across the Niger River from neighbouring Niger State after the ceremony.
All the passengers were relatives and friends of the newly married couple. It was not clear how many people were on the boat, some said as many as 300 and others said about 200.
Okasanmi Ajayi, a spokesman for the Kwara State police, said: “More than 100 people were rescued. But, he said, they were still searching for more people and the number of the dead could rise. He told Reuters news agency that 103 people had been confirmed dead.
The namas of survivors would be made public as soon as they were avalable, Ajayi said.
He said the overcrowded boat had capsized in the Niger River in the Pategi district of Kwara State, which is about 160km from Ilorin, the state capital.
The locally made wooden boat hit a log in the river and split in two.
Locals said they were able to pull about 50 people out of the water before the police arrived.
Kwara governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s office issued a statement expressing sadness for the families of those drowned and adding that he “continues to monitor the rescue efforts since Monday night in search of possible survivors”.
Locals told news agency AFP that it was the deadliest boating accident they had seen in many years.
They said many Nigerians preferred to use boats to travel because they feared abductions by armed gangs on the roads. But the boats were often overloaded, had not been maintained properly and the owners did not always comply with safety rules and procedures.
They said although this was the worst disaster in years, boating accidents happened frequently.
Last month, 15 children drowned and 25 others disappeared after an overloaded boat capsized in the state of Sokoto in the northwest. They were travelling to harvest wood.
At the beginning of December 2021, another overloaded boat capsized. Twenty-nine people drowned, the majority of them children.
The Niger River is the main waterway in West Africa and is a key trading route for people in several countries, including Nigeria.
The authorities had been trying to ban night navigation but the rule was not respected, locals said.
