The Managing Director of the Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission (HYPPADEC), Alhaji Abubakar Yelwa, has called for a law to make life jackets compulsory for boat users across the country. Yelwa made the appeal while reacting to the boat mishap in Patigi LGA, Kwara state, which claimed about 100 lives on Monday. Alhaji Yelwa on Wednesday in Ilorin, during the flag-off of the distribution of the 2023 HYPPADEC-subsidised fertilisers for 5,795 farmers in kwara said “The fatality recorded in the unfortunate boat mishap in Patigi on Monday was due to the failure of the boat passengers to use life jackets.
The ill-fated boat ferrying about 250 passengers who were returning from a wedding celebration capsized on Monday in Egbu village, Patigi LGA. About 100 of the passengers lost their lives during the incident.
Yelwa who was represented by Director of Communication Services of the commission Dr. Mahmud Umar said “HYPPADEC spent N1.6 billion on the procurement of life jackets for boat passengers last year. If the victims had put on the life jackets, the fatality rate would have been very minimal because a life jacket can keep a victim afloat for at least seven hours, and help would have come from villagers within that period.
“I want to call on relevant authorities to legislate a law that will make the use of life jackets compulsory for boat passengers and as well restrain the boat operators from operating at night.”
The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on Wednesday, offered condolences to Nigeria over the boat mishap.
