By Correspondent in Ilorin.
The NIWA MD,Dr. George Moghalu( left), speaking with journalists in Ilorin while other officials listened.
All those who have hands in the June 12 boat mishap in Kwara state would be punished upon the completion of an investigation into the tragic event
The Managing Director of National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) headquarters,Lokoja, Kogi State, Dr. George Moghalu disclosed this in Ilorin during the weekend while speaking with journalists.
He said there were instances where boat operators involved in activities considered dangerous to the safety of passengers, were arrested and sent to prisons upon conviction in court and their vessels were either impounded or destroyed, when considered not river-worthy.
The Reporters recalls hat over 100 passengers lost their lives on June 12 in a boat accident that happened in the Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara state at about 3:00a.m but sources said that 146 escaped death.
Moghalu, who led a delegation on an on-the-spot assessment tour of the situation in Patigi communities, said preliminary investigation revealed the causes of the incident.
He said:" Preliminary investigation revealed that the vessel was very "heavily overloaded carrying over 250 persons, including luggage. The people were not wearing life jackets and they were traveling in the dead of the night at about 2:30 a.m.
"It was a rainy night. The rain came with the wind. Apart from the rain increasing the water level, the wind was moving and forcing both left and right and then smashed the boat against a tree.
"The vessel carried passengers, five times more than what it should".
"These are some of the issues that came out in the course of our preliminary investigations. Meanwhile, there is still a lot going on to forestall future occurrence".
Giving insight into the outcome of the assessment of the area concerned, he said:
"We met with the communities, spoke with survivors and relations of victims. We assured them of our commitment, as an organization, to see what can be done to help.
"From our visit, the basic request was the provision of more life jackets. This we've already done with the provision of 100 life jackets. They also requested a jetty.
On the operation of NIWA, the MD added.
"We have 23 area offices, manned by qualified personnel where we continue the distribution of life jackets. We carried out sensitization to encourage people to wear life jackets and even help to change expired life jackets.
"We will also continue the training of operators to standardize operation all over the country".
The NIWA boss, who said that investigations on the Kwara boat mishap continued, expressed dismay that not all vessel operators were licensed or registered, and promised that the organization would continue registration of all vessel operators to ensure the safety of waterways.
He also said that the investigation showed that 90 percent of accidents on water occur either in the night or very early in the morning, adding that, most of the vessels don't have night navigational aids, thus, moving boasts in such circumstances is a risky venture.
The managing director said the organization would make use of local manpower to enforce operational guidelines on the nation's waterways to prevent a reoccurrence of the boat mishap in the Kwara state community in particular and the country at large.
The NIWA managing director, who said that the organization was determined to enforce standard operating procedure with a set of operational guidelines, added that it would use local enforcement agents, made up of youth, to enforce the guidelines set for security purposes at all times.
"A team to assess the environmental impact assessment of the incident would come to the area to determine the provision of either a jetty or ramp to improve movement in the area. Part of our responsibility is to ensure the security and safety of the people.
"Part of the message to the people is that you cannot operate your vessel after 6:00 pm. The operational time is between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm. They should wear life jackets before entering any vessel. The vessel must not be overloaded. We would be using local media, traditional and religious institutions, and community stakeholders to pass the message across to the people.
The NIWA boss, who said that the organization shared the pain of the people on what he described as avoidable deaths, added that President Bola Tinubu was very worried and concerned about the incident.
He also said that the President had ordered an investigation into the incident to know exactly what happened, to stop reoccurrence.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
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