Corps Member, Five Others Feared Dead In Bayelsa Boat Accident
No fewer than six persons including a female member of the National Youths Service Corps; a pregnant woman; a mother and her two children; and a 70-year-old man, have been feared dead in a passenger boat accident in Bayelsa State.
They were said to have drowned as a result of the incident which occurred on Saturday between Otuan and Ayama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
According to reports, the boat which had 15 passengers on board, rammed into a barrier in the waters and sank while approaching Ayama to berth, amidst a heavy rainstorm.
It was gathered that the passengers were covered with a tarpaulin to protect them from the rainstorm when the accident happened.
The corpses of the casualties and the boats were still missing even as a search team had been deployed in the area as of the time of this report.
The unit chairman of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria at Otuan community, Joseph Shadrach, said the boat driver, Christopher Lucky, had been detained by the police in Ayama for allegedly driving under poor visibility.
He claimed that preliminary investigation showed that the weather was bad due to the rainstorm, which had started before the boat moved.
