By Roland Ekama
The Nigeria Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) on Wednesday , raised concerns over the high rate of casualties on wooden boat accidents on Inland waterways across the country in the last 100 days.
Speaking as a guest on a TVC programme, Beyond “100 Days and monitored by our correspondent, “Director General of NSIB ,Mr. Alex Badeh Jr stressed the need for more regulations on the waterways across the country.
According to him, accidents on wooden boats stood at 85% while fibre boats accidents was 15%,stressing that NSIB will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with some transport and maritime regulatory agencies to further review safety standards on all modes of transportation.
NSIB boss disclosed that there was a total number of 97.32% casualties on the brown waters,within period laden with passengers on wooden boats while 2.68 % causalities occurred on fibre watercrafts laden with passengers.
Highlighting some of the activities, the DG explained that there have been 20 recorded accidents on the waterways between 2023 to 2024 pointing out that total number of casualties stood at 299.
Badeh noted that the total number of survivors on the two types of boats were 595 with overall total number of 898 passengers within the period.
He stated that moves are ongoing sign pacts with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA),Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Nigerian Navy among many other regulatory agencies.
