It is heartbreaking news from Sokoto; what started as a routine crossing has turned into one of Nigeria’s deadliest waterway disasters in recent times, with 65 lives now confirmed lost.

This is just devastating.

The death toll from that horrific boat mishap at Gorau Village in Goronyo LGA, Sokoto State has now risen to 65, with only 11 people found alive. Grief and anger are spreading across the state, and honestly, you can understand why.

According to cbinews.tv, the tragedy happened on Thursday at the Gorau crossing point. Rescue teams had to suspend operations on Thursday evening because it was too dark and too dangerous to continue, at which point they had already recovered 53 bodies. When they resumed on Friday morning, more bodies were found, pushing the confirmed figure to 65.

The National Inland Waterways Authority, NIWA, has confirmed that 11 persons survived, including the Village Head, Alhaji Na Batsami Gorau. Many of the recovered bodies have already been buried according to Islamic rites, as families struggle to come to terms with the scale of it all.

It has once again raised serious questions about safety on Nigeria’s inland waterways, especially for riverine communities where people have no choice but to rely on canoes and small boats for transport, farming, and trade.

Officials are still combing the waterways around Gorau, but hopes of finding more survivors are fading fast.

Reacting to the incident, NIWA Board Chairman, Alhaji Mukhtar Shehu Shagari, described it as painful and devastating, and urged boat operators and passengers to strictly obey waterway safety rules. Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, former governor of the state, also called for an immediate investigation to find out exactly what went wrong and to stop this from happening again.

But the member representing Goronyo/Gada Federal Constituency, Hon. Bashir Usman Gorau, says we need to look beyond this one accident. He is calling on the Federal Government to urgently desilt the Goronyo Dam and its tributaries, warning that after more than 50 years, silt has drastically reduced the dam’s capacity and is making flooding and water-related disasters worse.

As he put it, we cannot keep waiting until lives are lost and communities are submerged before we act.

Right now, all eyes are on the Federal Government, NIWA, NEMA and SEMA to move beyond condolences and do something concrete — better enforcement, life jackets, proper regulation of boat operations, and fixing that dam.

Sokoto is mourning. 65 lives. It must not just become another statistic.

Credit: cbinews.tv

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