No fewer than 15 people have been reported dead when a boat conveying passengers capsized in Njuwa lake located in Yola south local government area of Adamawa state.
Sources told Pioneer News correspondents that the passengers including children were being ferried across the popular traditional lake to Rugange village after attending to business concerns in Yola when the Boat suddenly capsized leaving the occupants struggling to make it to the banks of the lake for safety.
Pioneer learned that the victims of the boat mishap were returning home after a day’s business transactions from the Yola market when they got caught up in a heavy winds storm in the middle of the lake leading to the unfortunate incident.
According to an eye witness who gave his name as Faisal Dabo Rugange, the occupants of the boat were numbering twenty when the boat capsided with only six of them rescued by local divers before the appearance of a bigger boat on the scene to rescue the victims.
He told our correspondent that despite the prolonged search, the rest of the occupants are still missing throwing the entire Rugange community into mourning.
Our correspondent reports that the perennial flood and its devastating experience on the nearby communities including the loss of lives and property have remained a matter of serious concern to both the community and the government.
Several villages who spoke to pioneer News correspondents have called on the appropriate authorities to intervene in the misfortunes of the community which has now become an intermittent affair.
When the Adamawa State Coordinator of the State Emergency Agency, Mohammed Suleiman was approached for comment, he told our correspondent that one of the rescued victims died later while seventeen bodies are still yet to be recovered.
He further confirmed that five of the occupants of the boat had been rescued at the scene of the incident.
PIONEER NEWS 