From John Adams, Minna
Thirty bodies have been recovered, while 65 persons were rescued by local divers from the scene of a boat mishap that occurred in Tijana in Munya Local Government Area of Niger State.
A local boat carrying about 100 people, including women and children capsized midway into the journey, at about 6:00pm, on Saturday, when the villagers were returning from a local market in Zumba, in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
The Sarkin Kasuwan (Head of the Market) Zumba, Mallam Adamu Ahmed, told Daily Sun on phone that, so far, 30 bodies have been recovered since the search and rescue operation started, yesterday night.
He said the local divers were still intensifying search for more bodies but regretted that lack of support in the area of logistics from any quarter was slowing down the search operation.
He said: “The six months old local boat capsized due to a heavy windstorm occasioned by the Saturday evening rain in the area. Among the victims were some returnees who had earlier fled their homes with their children due to bandits attacks.
When contacted, the Director General State Emergency Management Agency, Mallam Ahmed Inga, told Daily Sun that the actual number of people that were on board of the capsized boat were about 100.
He said 65 people survived, 28 bodies recovered by local divers, while seven people were still missing. The director general said a search and rescue operation was still ongoing to recover the missing persons.