Dozens feared dead after boat sinks in southern Nigeria

Dozens feared dead after boat sinks in southern Nigeria

2011-12-15 10:02:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

LAGOS, NIGERIA (BNO NEWS) -- As many as 30 people are feared to have been killed after a vessel capsized on a river in southern Nigeria on late Tuesday evening, officials said on Wednesday afternoon.

The accident happened at around 11.30 p.m. local time on Tuesday when a local transport boat capsized at the Chiogbonna Waterfront in the Rumuolumeni area of Obio-Akpor in Nigeria's Rivers State.

South-South zonal coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Umesi Emenike, told the Nigerian Tribune that the boat is believed to have been overloaded with somewhere between 40 and 50 people on board, mostly women who were returning home from a local market.

Officials said the rescue efforts were slowed because no state emergency services are available at night in the area. "If we had a standing State Emergency Management Agency, information would have been got quite in time and people would have been mobilized to the scene in time," Emenike said, as quoted by the media outlet. "Unfortunately because there is no coordinating agency on the ground, it is difficult to get information promptly."

According to Emenike, ten people were rescued while eleven bodies have been recovered as of Wednesday morning. But Police Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Ben Ugbuegbulam (DSP), said seven persons were rescued and that only one body had been recovered.

However, local officials disagreed with both numbers and NEMA spokesman Yushau Shuaib claimed three people had been rescued with 20 bodies recovered. More information was expected on Thursday.

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