At least 52 people, including 11 members of the same family, have been buried following a boat accident in Gorau, Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The boat, said to be carrying more than 70 farmers and other passengers, overturned on Wednesday morning while crossing a waterway to access rice farms in the community.
Several children, mostly girls, were reportedly among those on board when the incident occurred at about 8:30am.
The National Emergency Management Agency’s Head of Operations in Sokoto State, Tukur Abubakar, confirmed that 52 bodies had been recovered and buried, while officials were still working to establish the exact number of people involved.
“We are about to meet with officials of the sister agency and the local government officials to know the exact number of the victims,” Abubakar said.
The Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency also said its officials were at the scene assessing the situation, stressing that no final figure had been established as rescue efforts continued.
Local divers and residents reportedly remained engaged in efforts to recover possible survivors and bodies of those still missing.
Recounting his narrow escape, the village head of Gorau, Aliyu Na-Batsami, said he survived after the boat overturned in the middle of the waterway.
Na-Batsami said he managed to stay afloat and eventually held on to a sack that surfaced from the water before rescuers reached him.
“There were more than 70 of us in the boat. Most of us were farmers going to our farms to work. There were also children among us, most of them girls,” he said.
The village head disclosed that one family lost 11 children in the disaster, describing the incident as the first major boat accident recorded in the area.
A resident involved in the rescue operation, Ya’u ECG, said the boat reportedly developed a fault shortly after leaving the shore, leading to the accident.
Another resident, Usman Yusuf Shanka, said his younger brother’s wife, Jamila Aminu, and her two children, Yasir Aminu and Sani Aminu, were among the dead. He added that another member of the family, Umar Muhammad, also lost his life.
Shanka appealed to the government to provide a safer means of transportation for farmers who depend on the waterway, including the construction of a bridge.
“We are calling on the government to take action on the dam by providing a safer means of crossing, including constructing a bridge, because farmers have to pass through this place to reach their farms,” he said.
The lawmaker representing Goronyo Constituency in the Sokoto State House of Assembly, Nasiru Adamu, blamed the tragedy partly on overcrowding, saying the boat operator claimed he had warned passengers against exceeding its capacity.
“When we asked him why he allowed over 70 people to board the boat, he said he did his best to stop them from overcrowding the boat, but they refused to follow his instructions,” Adamu said.
The lawmaker urged residents to exercise caution when using waterways and avoid overloading boats, recalling that a similar accident occurred in the area last year.
The latest tragedy has also raised questions about the reach of previous government interventions aimed at improving water transport safety in the state.
The Sokoto State Government had last year distributed 20 motorised boats and 2,000 life jackets to riverine communities, with Governor Ahmed Aliyu warning boat operators against overloading.
However, Adamu said Gorau was not among the communities that benefited from the boats and life jackets, despite its residents’ dependence on the waterway to reach their farms.
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