Eleven persons, including five children drowned on Tuesday when a fishing boat they were travelling in capsized on the Andoni-Bonny waterways in Andoni local government area of Rivers State.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the incident occurred when the boat, which was carrying 25 passengers, was hit by a heavy wave, forcing it to break into two.
A source told LEADERSHIP that there was no rescue team as at the time of the accident, to assist the passengers swim to safety, adding that by the time rescue team came, 11 passengers had already drowned while 14 others were rescued.
He stated that already, three corpses have been recovered while efforts were on to recover the remaining eight corpses.
Confirming the ugly development, the chairman of Andoni local government council, Hon. Erastus Awortu, said most of the victims of the boat mishap were from Ngo Town, Ataba, Isiama and other communities in the LGA.
Awortu, in a statement made available to newsmen in Port Harcourt yesterday, said the situation was being monitored to offer further support especially to give the survivors necessary medical attention and recover the remains of the dead from the sea.
He promised to do whatever is necessary to reduce the burden of grief of the bereaved families and communities.
Meanwhile, the state governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has expressed deepest grief over the unfortunate boat mishap that happened on the Andoni-Bonny sea route on Tuesday leading to the loss of many lives.
Fubara, in a statement signed by his media aide, Boniface Onyedi, condoled and sympathized with the affected families of the dead and indeed all the victims of the boat mishap.
The governor assured that his administration will continue to work to ensure that traveling on the sea routes becomes safer for travellers and riverine community dwellers.
He said: “I commiserate and condole with families of the victims of the boat accident that led to the loss of lives, and near death experienced by our brothers and sisters that were involved in the boat mishap.
“It is indeed a very unfortunate and sad incident and we pray that, God shall give all of them the strength to bear the loss and speedy recovery to those who survived.
“As a government, we will continue to work to ensure that such threats against safe traveling on our sea routes are tackled.”
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