No fewer than 11 people are reported to have died in a river when a boat carrying 29 passengers capsized on Tafa River, Maun 2 in Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State, Friday night.
The boat was said to be ferrying passengers and goods from Badagry in Lagos to Maun in Ipokia when the engine suddenly malfunctioned midway on the river, with the passengers crying for help before it went down. Ten of them were rescued, sources said.
A source said the passengers, majority of them traders, were taking their goods to a market in Badagry area of Lagos before the boat tumbled into the water.
The spokesman of the Ogun State Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the development.
Oyeyemi said: “Yes.
“There was a boat capsize and it was overloaded. The boat did not have light and travelled in the night. It had a head-on collision with a pillar in the river.
“The passengers were coming from Badagry in Lagos to Ipokia. It was the last boat left and all the 29 traders boarded the boat.
“Sixteen rescued live, 10 died yesterday and one died Friday,” he said adding that there were no live jackets.
Oyeyemi said the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, has given directive that henceforth the DPO should enforce that boat must have live jackets and not carry more than its capacity.
