At least 13 bodies have been recovered from the Ogbaru Local Government Area boat mishap in Anambra State.
The state emergency management agency says the search is continuing.
Arinze Awogu, a former transition committee chairman of Ogbaru local government, however, said 13 bodies were recovered by Sunday afternoon. He expressed the hope that more bodies were likely to be recovered, as the search continues.
“All hands are on deck. Recovering the bodies is no mean task, but before night today (Sunday), we hope more bodies will be found,” Awogu said
But one of the indigenes of the area, Eze Ogbugbulu, said 16 bodies had been recovered, including children.
The boat carrying 85 passengers capsized in River Niger, Anambra State, at the weekend, with 76 of them suspected to be dead
Paul Odenigbo, the executive secretary of SEMA and former secretary to Anambra State Government, said that only nine persons were rescued after the incident.
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According to him, “for now I can’t quote any figure of the dead recovered because it’s a continuous process. The agency has not rested since then.
“Whenever something like this happens, it will usually take a week before the bodies start floating because they will go down deep in the river.
“What happened was pathetic and regrettable. It will take some time before the bodies come up and start floating.”
“Out of the 85 persons on board, only nine were rescued and since we’ve not seen the rest, it’s assumed something bad must have happened. It’s quite unfortunate”, Odenigbo said
According to Ogbugbulu, the majority of the people in the boat were not from their area in Osamalla, but farmers working in camps.
“To tell you the truth, the majority of the people in that capsized boat are from Okpolodu camp in Ogwu-Anocha, the last community before Rivers State and Mputu.
“It is difficult to recover those bodies because some may hang in some of the metals and trees inside the river.
“But as we speak now, we learnt 16 bodies were recovered late Saturday and we’re still waiting today (Sunday) to see what will happen. It’s a difficult situation for us.
“We are talking about the flood that has submerged virtually every building in Ogbaru and now this “Ogbugbulu lamented.
