Tragedy struck in the oil bearing community of Gelegele River in Ovia North Eas Local Government of Edo State as seven women drowned when a boat carrying them capsized.
The accident was said to have occured when the boat which was carrying 28 passengers, mainly women rammed into an oil barges belong to a multi-national oil exploring company which as gathered, was wrongly parked.
Gelegele, a small riverine community which host Dubri, a multinational oil exploring firm is situated about 35 kilometres away from Benin City, the Edo State Capital.
The mishap was said to have occurred in the morning of Thursday last week when a passenger boat carrying mainly market women, including children from Ofunama community had parked at Gelegele to dropped some passengers and discovered that it ran out of fuel and in the process of refuelling was pushed by heavy water current which forced the boat against the barges parked along water way
The incident, according to officials of the local government and members of the community was avoidable.
Some of the surviving victims were brought out from under the barges by the men of the marine police stationed in the area.
Reacting, the Vice Chairman of Ovia North East local government Area, Blessing Perewari, who visited the scene of the accident sympathized with families of the tragic mishap and said the dead have been deposited at the mortuary.
Narrating what led to the incident he said, “From what I heard, I was also at the scene where the boat capsized. About 28 adults, two pregnant women and three babies were involved. When they got to the Gelegele waterside there was this Dubri oil company barge that was parked in parallel.
“Because of the way the barges were parked caused obstruction on the waterway. So, this particular boat carrying 28 persons after dropping two passengers tried to restart the boat but the engine failed to respond.
“And because of the high current of the river it now pushed the boat into the Dubri oil barges and it torpedoed under the barges making it difficult for the victims to come out. Some of them that knows how to swim manage to escape while others were trapped under the barges
“With the help of the Marine Police and other community inhabitants were able to rescue 18 of the passengers and seven died. The remains of the dead have been deposited at Time Hospital and Stella Obasanjo Hospital.
Perewari blamed the Oil Company for their inability to provide ambulances to convey the dead.
One of the rescue operation team and a member of the community, Joseph Gbale, also corroborated the position of the Vice chairman on what led to the tragic mishap.
“Even though it was carelessness on the part of the driver of the boat, the barges should not have been parked in a double manner thereby narrowing the water way.
“As at last Friday morning when we got there not even a single corpse has been recovered. The local nurse said thirteen passengers were brought to the health centre and were attended to. One of the survivors said she sustained injury while she was being pulled out from under the barges.
“We were shocked that Dubri oil didn’t show any concern and no ambulance, a multi-national company exploring oil in the community.
An officer of the Marine Police who is authorised to speak on the matter said the report of the incident have been sent to the Edo State Police Command in Benin City.
As at the time of filing Ithe report, the Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, Chidi Nwabuzor when contacted said he was in a meeting and promised to respond later.