No fewer than 11 people, including a pregnant woman and six children, are feared dead after a boat carrying mourners back from a burial ceremony capsized on the River Benue in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue State. The tragedy occurred on Saturday evening as the passengers were returning to Daududawadawa, an island community located behind the Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering barracks in the North Bank area of Makurdi.
A resident, who identified himself only as Daniel, told journalists on Sunday that the boat, carrying more than 40 passengers, overturned in the middle of the river between 7pm and 8pm amid a heavy downpour and violent windstorm. Confirming the incident, Commander of Operation Shara (Sweep), a local vigilante group in North Bank, Nura Umar, said the victims had attended the burial of a woman from their community in Wadata.
According to Umar, the deceased woman had been taken to a private hospital in North Bank on Saturday morning, where she later died. Relatives and sympathisers subsequently transported her remains to Wadata for burial before embarking on the return journey. “After the burial, they boarded a boat to cross back to Daududawadawa community.
At about 7pm, heavy rain and strong winds started, and the boat capsized halfway into the journey,” Umar said. “There were over 40 passengers aboard the boat, but 11 were feared dead. We have recovered four bodies so far and buried them, while divers are still searching for the remaining victims,” he said.
He added that one of the survivors had a baby strapped to her back but tragically lost the child in the accident. The spokesperson for the Benue State Police Command, DSP Udeme Edet, said she had yet to receive an official report of the incident. The latest tragedy comes barely six months after the Benue State Government pledged to tighten safety measures on the state’s waterways in response to recurring boat accidents.