BY OUR CORRESPONDENT – More than 30 people are feared dead after a wooden canoe carrying over 100 passengers capsized at the Buruku crossing point of River Katsina-Ala in Benue State around midday on Saturday, October 2, 2026
The tragic incident left dozens of passengers and motorcycles trapped underwater with the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) admitting that the ongoing operation at the scene could no longer strictly be described as a rescue mission, given the length of time the victims had remained underwater.
Sources confirmed that more than 100 passengers, including mourners returning from a burial ceremony, were crammed onto the overcrowded wooden boat alongside dozens of heavy motorcycles as it attempted to cross the river
It was reliably learnt that mid-journey, there was engine failure and heavy waves flipped the vessel into the deep waters, and given the submerged wreckage, divers were exposed to perilous conditions navigating underwater obstacles, including dozens of sunken motorcycles trapped at the disaster site.
Speaking on the boat incident, the Head of Information Unit of SEMA, Tema Ager, disclosed that two additional bodies were recovered from the river on Sunday during an assessment of the accident scene, while acknowledging that 38 motorcycles also went into the river with the ill-fated boat, with each motorcycle reportedly carrying three people.
According to Ager, the agency was working to establish the number of people involved by tracing the passengers carried by individual motorcycle riders, adding that information is being gathered from surviving motorcycle riders to determine who had boarded the boat.
He said, “The ongoing operation can no longer be called rescue because anybody you find underwater now after three days is a dead person. Yesterday (Sunday), on the spot when we went there, two bodies were discovered.”
The SEMA official also disclosed that efforts were still ongoing to recover the motorcycles that sank at the accident site, adding: “They had 38 motorcycles that sank in one place. The canoe association members were trying to remove them. They have been able to remove 10 motorcycles, remaining 28.”
Ager, who said it has been difficult to establish the number of passengers on the ill-fated boat because not everyone who boarded the vessel was recorded, explained that the 38 motorcycles involved in the incident were carrying three people each, putting the number of people associated with the motorcycles at at least 114.
“The 38 motorcycles involved were carrying three people each. If you put that number together, you will have not less than 114 people,” he said, and stressed that the actual number of passengers could be higher because some mourners travelled independently to the burial and joined the boat at the riverbank on their return.
“You have to remember they were mourners who were coming back from a burial. We took a statistic of every rider. All the riders were alive. So we asked them, ‘Who and who did you carry?’ They were able to identify those they carried. So those whom they could not identify were taken that they were missing underwater,” he said.
Further acknowledging that the presence of so many people at the riverbank waiting to cross also made it difficult to establish the exact number of passengers, the SEMA Spokesperson said, “But you know that other people are also always at the water banks waiting for opportunity to cross. So those of them and those others who attended the burial on their own also joined in the boat. We cannot give account of those ones. So it is likely that 30-something people are still underwater there. So they are still searching for them”.
Ager disclosed that the newly built boat was on its maiden voyage when it capsized and blamed the accident on overloading passengers and motorcycles, urging operators to always limit their cargo carriage at every given time.
Additionally, he called for mandatory use of life jackets, noting that flotation devices drastically reduce fatalities in boat accidents, adding: “So we advise them strongly to be using life jackets when they are ferrying people across the river.”
On measures to address the frequency of these unfortunate mishap, Ager admitted that preventing future tragedies remains an uphill battle due to a critical gap in oversight.
However, with the state vowing to ramp up safety campaigns across riverine communities, some stakeholder argued and openly acknowledged that policies without teeth will fail to protect passengers on the water, insisting that the core challenge lies in the total absence of a dedicated enforcement team to police local waterways.
While highlighting the frustration of governing by persuasion alone, Ager said: “We urge operators to minimize boat loads and ensure everyone wears life jackets”, adding, “But you can give advice to people and still not be able to force them to follow it. Unless you have an enforcement team on the ground, compliance is nearly impossible.”
The SEMA spokesperson’s position is supported by some of the stakeholders who told Forefront News that without a marine task force to back up government regulations, safety guidelines remain entirely voluntary, leaving commuters exposed to ongoing risks.
