Blood, Tears as 166 Perish in Calabar

No less than 166 Nigerians were feared dead when a boat they were travelling in sank about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

Eyewitnesses said that the passengers were travelling in a large wooden boat, which departed from Oron, Akwa Ibom State on Friday and was heading for Gabon when it capsized off Malabo, near the coast of Equatorial Guinea.

Mr. David Akate, assistant director, Information, Cross River Emergency Management Agency (SEMA(  confirmed the incident, but did not give further details. Sources familiar with the situation told our reporter that the boat was carrying 168 passengers, adding that rescue efforts were still going on.

 Mr. Ikechukwu Egwu, marine transporter at the Calabar Inland Waterways  also confirmed the incident.

He added that the two known survivors were a young boy and a woman who had clung to a gas cylinder and were rescued by fishermen.

Egwu said that the passengers of the boat were mostly Igbo traders who were heading for Gabon. He said that the traders were mostly from the South-East states and headed to Oron in Akwa Ibom to board the wooden boat because it was cheap.

“They are mostly Igbo traders who headed to Oron to board the wooden boat because it was cheaper,’’ he said. The cause of the accident was not immediately known but sources said the boat might have been overloaded due to non-compliance with basic safety standards.

As at yesterday, the mood at the morgue of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, where 45 corpses of some of the victims have been deposited was that of gloom and people thronged the hospital to try to identify the remains of loved ones.

Official sources said the victims’ corpses were brought to Calabar instead of Malabo, where the mishap occurred, because they were believed to be Nigerians.

The eyewitnesses also said that other corpses had been deposited in Oron, from where the ill-fated journey began. In another development, a bomb blast yesterday hit the patrol vehicle of men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, at the Roundabout of Kashim Ibrahim Way at noon, killing four soldiers, five civilians, while four others sustained injuries.