Abuja, Oct 5 (UNI) The death toll in a boat accident earlier this week in Niger State in central Nigeria has risen to 42, as more bodies were recovered on Friday, a local official said.
Abdullahi Baba-Arah, head of the State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters that at least 17 more bodies had been recovered since Thursday, six of them found early Friday.
At least 25 bodies were earlier confirmed to have been recovered after the boat carrying more than 300 passengers capsized on Tuesday night, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman said on Thursday.
More than 150 others were rescued after the overloaded wooden boat flipped over on the River Niger upstream Jebba Dam in the Mokwa local government area late Tuesday, Bayo Onanuga, a senior presidential spokesman, said in a statement issued on behalf of Tinubu.
The victims were returning from a religious celebration in another community in Niger when the accident occurred, local authorities said.
