By Haruna Aliyu Usman

DAYS after, the pain and sorrow of the boat that sank with 156 persons are still felt in Kebbi State and beyond. Most of the occupants on the ill-fated boat have since gone to the great beyond to meet with their Maker; but their dependants, some of them women, men and children, are still expectant they would somehow make it to the shore and reunite with them. But as each day passes, that hope continues to diminish for those left behind to mour their loss, especially as they struggle to come to terms with the cold reality that their breadwinners are have kicked the bucket at a time they least expected them to join their ancestors.

It was a market day and the 156 traders and fishermen were on their normal business route ferrying goods from Niger State to Kebbi State in a big wooden canoe to the weekly Warra Market in Ngaski Local Government Area of Kebbi State when calamity struck.

A heavy storm suddenly descended on the boat and its occupants, throwing all of them overboard and causing mayhem in the process. As the wind struck and sank the boat, with its occupants thrown into the turbulent ocean, the traders and fishermen knew they were in real danger.

Those who could swim managed to make some move against the rough tide, while others who could not swim, merely resigned themselves to the fate that awaited them in the surging ocean and said their last prayers as they gave up.

In the end, no fewer than 100 of the traders were sent to their early graves as only 20 were lucky to be ferried alive from the turbulent and whaling ocean.

It immediately triggered tears and sorrow as their families erupted into unmitigated weeping and wailing for their loved ones swept away under the ocean. The tears have continued to run many days after the tragedy with condolence visits and outpouring of solidarity with the families of the slain and the governors of states where the victims came from.

Not waiting to be undone, Sokoto and Zamfara states have led the pack to donate cash and materials the victim families so as to cushion their grief and enable them to recover from the grave loss. Similarly, the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, led by their chairman and Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, has made a handsome donation of N50 million to the families of the victims.

Perhaps, the    Warah boat mishap, the second in recent months, would have been avoided if the first which occurred at Yauri River, which claimed no fewer than 20 lives, had taught the officials of the Kebbi State Government and the Inland Waterways any lesson.

But as it were all the people who should have taken action to prevent a future mishap appear to have gone to sleep once the Yauri boat disappeared with its occupants.
As it was in the first one, the traders and fishermen, who were in the boat, did not wear life jackets and had no safety gears of any kind in the overloaded troubled boat, which also had sand bags for gold mining, easily sank as the winds came over it.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the ill-fated boat was overloaded and made to lose its balance, coupled with the rough sea that derailed it.

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A local resident, Malam Musa, pointed out that boat owners and operators have made it a policy to overload them with goods, passengers and even articles such as bicycles, motorcycles, and cars all in a bid to make more gains from a single journey, thereby endangering the lives of people on board.

“It is only by the special grace of God that boat accidents don’t occur everyday because the people who own and operate them do not take any precautionary measure to protect the lives of passengers and the goods on board,” Musa said. 

Bagudu’s reaction
The governor, who was in Sokoto to attend the two-day stakeholders’ Constitution Review meeting, was forced to return to Kebbi once the bad news of the boat mishap filtered out like a bad omen.

Once in Birnin Kebbi, Governor Bagudu, immediately began to mobilise effort to the scene of the accident in a bid to salvage those he could and mitigate the loss of lives.

But his effort was, however, too late as the divers and other first responders, who had earlier moved to the water front, could only rescue a handful of the victims. Indeed most of the victims of the boat mishap had already died before the rescue teams could reach them due to the high and violent tide that swept their boat aground.

Prior to the unexpected boat mishap the number one chief security officer was away in Sokoto to attend a programme on constitution review as confirmed by his special adviser on media Malam Yahya Sarki. Upon his return Bagudu mobilised to the scene of the accident for on-the- spot accessment of damages and casualties.

But the governor had a word for the Emir of Yauri, Dr. Muhammad Zayyanu: “We are here to commiserate with the people of Yauri, Warrah and Ngaski on the unprecedented loss of lives and property caused by the accident,” the governor told the traditional ruler.

“We are in talks with officials of the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, to review the maritime laws with a view to forestalling future occurrences and ensuring that there is proper synergy between officials in charge of boat operations in Kebbi and NIWA. We want to ensure that going forward, no boat leaves for any water journey without and that boat operators do not overload their vessels no matter the temptation”.

SEMA’s response
Chairman of the Kebbi State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Muhammad Sani Dododo, whose men coordinated the rescue operations for the victims, and bravely succeeded in saving some of them, confirmed that 22 were rescued while the rest were dead or missing.

It is left to be seen how the Kebbi State Government and NIWA will react to the latest sad incident that had brought agony, tears and blood to the state and its people and how the next water voyage in the state involving traders, fishermen and passengers will be organised and whether the safety of those on board will be given the utmost safety attention they require or it will still be business as usual.

Vanguard News Nigeria