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From Tony Osauzo, Benin
Seven women have reportedly drowned following a boat accident which occurred at Gelegele River in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State.
The victims, were said to have drowned when the boat carrying 28 passengers capsized after it rammed into oil barges that belong to a multi-national oil exploration company that were allegedly wrongly moored at Gelegele, a small riverine community about 35 kilometres from Benin City, the Edo State Capital.
The mishap reportedly occurred last week Thursday morning, when the passenger boat carrying mainly market women, including children from Ofunama community stopped at Gelegele to dropped some passengers.
The boat operator was said to have discovered that it ran out of fuel and in the process of refuelling, the boat was pushed by heavy water current which rammed it against the barges, an accident officials of the local government and members of the community said could have been avoided.
It was gathered that some of the survivors were brought out from under the barges by the men of the Marine Police stationed in Gelegele.
The Vice Chairman of Ovia South-West Local Government Council, Blessing Perewari, who visited the scene of the incident, sympathized with families of the tragic mishap and said the dead have been deposited at the mortuary.
He narrated what led to the accident saying that : “From what I heard I was also at the scene where the boat capsized. About 28 adults, two pregnant women and three babies were involved. When they got to the Gelegele waterside there was this Dubri Oil Company barges that were parked in parallel.
“Because of the way the barges were parked they caused obstruction on the waterway. So, this particular boat carrying 28 persons after dropping two passengers tried to restart the boat but the engine failed to respond.
“And because of the high current of the river it now pushed the boat into the Dubri oil barges and it torpedoed under the barges making it difficult for the victims to come out. Some of them that know how to swim manage to escape while others were trapped under the barges
“With the help of the Marine Police and other community inhabitants they were able to rescue 18 of the passengers and seven died. The remains of the dead have been deposited at Time Hospital and Stella Obasanjo Hospital”, he said.
Perewari blamed the Oil Company for their inability to provide ambulances to convey the dead.
One of the rescue operation team and a member of the community, Comarde Joseph Gbale, also corroborated the position of the Vice chairman on what led to the tragic mishap.
“Even though there was carelessness on the part of the driver of the boat, the barges should not have been parked in a double manner thereby narrowing the water way.
“As at last Friday morning when we got there not even a single corpse has been recovered. The local Nurse said thirteen passengers were brought to the health centre and were attended to. One of the survivors said she sustained injury while she was being pulled out from under the barges.
“We were shocked that Dubri Oil didn’t show any concern and no ambulance, a multi-national company exploring oil in the community?.
But a senior staff of the company who said the company was meeting on the issue but not authorised to speak officially said “Our barges and tug boat were anchored at our jetty and that da:y incidentally was Ekheuan market day.
If you have been to our jetty before, we have three barges that are normally there, they have been there before 1987 and that was not the only boat that passed through that place that day. The police were involved in the rescue operations and they know everything that happened, the army speed boat was also close by and witnessed everything that happened, it is not something that was not in public view. The community chairman works for the company that owns the barge. He was there just for his routine inspection when he saw the incident, he was the one who first mobilized some divers from the community for rescue operations”, he said.
An officer of the Marine Police who is not authorized to speak on the matter, said the report of the incident has been sent to the Edo State Police Command in Benin.
Edo State Police Publlic Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor, while confirming the incident, explained that the Command received a report of one dead and five injured shortly after the accident occurred adding that he would verify current death toll from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the area.
