Iliyasu Abdullahi Bah
A devastating boat mishap in Taura Local Government Area of Jigawa State has left six children dead and seven others rescued, with two still missing, after an overloaded canoe capsized on Sunday evening around 8:15 pm while transporting 15 children returning from Jejin Gunka farm to their village of Zangwan Maje.
The Jigawa State Police Command confirmed the tragic incident in an official statement obtained by The Journal Nigeria on Wednesday. Police Commissioner Dahiru Muhammad expressed heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families while issuing a strong warning to residents about water transportation safety, specifically cautioning against night time travel, overloading of boats, and emphasizing the critical importance of wearing life jackets.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has subsequently issued an urgent warning about the illegal and dangerous practice of using canoes without proper safety measures, particularly in rural communities where water transportation remains prevalent but largely unregulated.
NEMA officials stressed that most canoe operators flout basic safety regulations, including failure to provide life jackets, overloading beyond capacity, operating poorly maintained vessels, and undertaking risky night journeys without proper navigation equipment.
The agency revealed that this tragic incident follows a pattern of preventable water accidents across Nigeria’s riverine communities, where lack of enforcement of safety standards continues to claim innocent lives.
NEMA has called for immediate collaboration between local authorities, community leaders, and law enforcement to clamp down on illegal canoe operations, implement mandatory safety checks at waterways, and launch intensive public awareness campaigns about water transportation risks, particularly targeting rural areas where most farmers and villagers depend on such unsafe means of transport for their daily activities.
The agency further emphasized that many of these tragedies could be prevented through simple measures like proper boat maintenance, adherence to passenger limits, availability of life saving equipment, and avoidance of night travel when visibility is poor and rescue operations become more challenging.
This latest accident has reignited calls for state and federal governments to prioritize water transportation safety by establishing proper regulatory frameworks, licensing systems for boat operators, and emergency response units along major inland waterways to prevent future loss of lives.
As search efforts continue for the two missing children, the Jigawa State government faces mounting pressure to implement immediate safety measures across its water transport systems to prevent similar tragedies, while families and communities mourn the unnecessary loss of these young lives in yet another preventable accident that highlights the urgent need for comprehensive waterway safety reforms in Nigeria.