Survivors Of Kwara Boat Disaster Recount Ordeal, Call For Construction Of Roads
Written by Olarotimi Oshin on June 23, 2023
Three lucky survivors, who escaped miraculously in the June 12, 2023, Black Monday boat disaster, which claimed 107 lives, in Kwara State, have recounted how they cheated death by the whiskers.
Suleiman Umar Muhammed, a community leader and one of the survivors, said the boat broke into two in the middle of the River Niger, noting that some male passengers were able to swim out of the water but the females and the children were trapped in the water.
He disclosed that although the boat was overloaded, the leakage in the boat appeared to be there before they boarded the boat. He also lamented the lack of accessible roads between the three villages, noting that the victims of the incident will not have gone through the river with the availability of good roads.
Another victim of the boat mishap, Muhammed Abdullahi said some of the male passengers survived the incident by climbing the tree, while others including his son could climb the tree or swim to the bank of the river to save them. Both survivors called on the state government to provide roads that can link the villagers to avoid such an incident.
