About 134 persons have been declared missing, and 16 corpses recovered after a boat capsized at Gbajibo in Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State.
The accident reportedly occurred at about 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday while the boat sailed from Mundi with about 300 people on board.
Ekwutosblog reliably gathered that the boat was returning from a Muslim religious festival.
The Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Abdullahi Baba Arah, confirmed the incident, stating that the tragedy took place on the River Niger upstream of the Jebba Dam.
“The incident occurred in the Gbajibo community in Mokwa Local Government Area at around 8:30 pm on Tuesday. The boat was sailing from the Mundi community with almost 300 passengers, mostly women and children, who were returning from a Maulid celebration in Gbajibo.
“NSEMA is currently directing and monitoring search and rescue operations in collaboration with the State Ministry of Transport, Mokwa Local Government Emergency Committee, local divers, and other community volunteers.
