By Nurat Uthman
More lifeless bodies were recovered on Tuesday as a wooden boat capsized in River Dundaye in the Wamakko local government area of Sokoto state on Sunday.
The most recent body recovered on Tuesday was that of a female teenager in the Wamakko axis of the river, 20 kilometres from the scene of the boat accident, bringing the total number to 10 bodies, so far recovered 2 days later.
According to reports, 20 survivors of the accident were rescued on the first day of the ill-fated journey through the combined efforts of the village community, the Sokoto Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), and the Sokoto zonal office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The boat that capsized in the middle of the river was conveying teenagers and some elderly people from the village who were hired for manual labour on farms along the river banks.
It was reported that the captain of the ill-fated boat lost control of the boat as a result of violent waves some meters away from the destination point, which caused it to capsize upside down and disperse its passengers into the moving water.
The accident is considered the worst and most significant in three decades, surpassing even the tragic event in 2003 when the river claimed the life of Hon. Saidu Nahantsi Illela, the former chairman of Illela Local Government Area and a former senatorial candidate of the defunct Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) for Sokoto East.
The former senatorial candidate died while trying to cross the river after a day’s job at his potato farm when he was cut by a slip and fell back into the river. It took hours before his body was finally recovered meters away from his farm by expert divers.
Former governor of the state, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wammako, in company of many APC stalwarts, has since condoled Dundaye community over what he described as unfortunate, saying that the scenario will leave an indelible mark in the minds of the parents of teenagers who lost their lives and those who lost their loved ones in the ill-fated boat.
Wamakko, however, prayed for the repose of the souls of the diseased victims of the boat accident.
