40 bodies recovered in boat mishap
From LAYI OLANREWAJU, Ilorin
Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A total of 40 dead bodes have been recovered from Nano River, Bukuro village in Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara State where two passenger boats capsized last weekend. The Chairman of Baruteen Local Government Area, Alhaji Aliyu M. Saliu who confirmed this to newsmen said that 15 persons on board the ill-fated boats were still missing as at Monday.

But, he clarified that none of the victims of the boat mishap was citizen of Baruten or Kwara, emphasizing that “I wish to state that all reports made available to us so far have not indicated that a single citizen from my local government area was involved in the sad incident.”

To underscore his emphasis that no Kwaran was involved in the mishap, Saliu said: “I wish to let you know that the President of the Republic of Benin was also at the scene of the incident as intelligent reports confirm those involved were not Nigerians.

“He however, promised to give four new engine boats to the people of the area which confirmed that it was Bebenoie that were involved in the unfortunate incident.”
The LG boss denied insinuations that pupils from Baruten LG were enrolled in schools in the border town, Yariwondo in Benin republic.

“I wish to declare unequivocally that the people involved were no Nigerians and no single Nigerian child goes to the Republic of Benin to receive any form of education whatsoever, hence the involvement of our school pupils was a misinformation,” he noted.
Saliu, however, agreed that the parents of the victims are residing at Bukuro village in Baruten where they are temporarily living for fishing purposes, saying that this was made possible because the demarcation between the border communities is a trekkable distance.

“Parents of the Benin Republic pupils that were involved in the boat mishap are living in the Nigerian border town of Bukuro. They usually relocate to this village during rainy season for fishing purposes and they prefer to enroll their children and wards in the Yariwondo schools because they are francophone while Nigeria is anglo-phone,” he said.
Two canoes conveying 80 passengers including market women and school pupils from Yariwondo village in Benin Republic to Bukuro village in Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara State capsized mid-way into the trip last weekend in Nano River with about 50 passengers losing their lives.

But the Baruten LG boss at a press conference insisted that there were only 55 passengers on board the canoes, adding that none of them was a citizen of Kwara or Nigeria.

Make N450,000 Online Monthly. Click Here