Anambra State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said the bodies of the victims of the Ogbaru boat mishap are still being searched for in the water.

But residents on Sunday said that 16 dead bodies have already been recovered.

The boat carrying 85 passengers capsized in River Niger, Anambra State at the weekend with 76 of them suspected to be dead

The Executive Secretary of SEMA and former Secretary to Anambra State Government, Chief Paul Odenigbo, told The Nation that only nine persons were rescued after the incident.

According to him: “For now, I can’t quote any figure of dead bodies recovered because it’s a continuous process. The agency has not rested since then. When something like this happens, it takes up to a week before you start seeing the bodies because, they will go down deep in the river.

“What happened was pathetic and regrettable. It will take some time before the bodies come up and start floating in the water. Out of the 85 persons on board, only nine were rescued and since we’ve not seen the rest, it’s assumed something bad must have happened. It’s quite unfortunate,” Odenigbo said

However, one of the community leaders in Ogbaru, Eze Ogbugbulu, said 16 bodies were recovered on Saturday, including little children.

Majority of the people in the boat, according to him, were not from Osamalla but farmers in camps working.

“To tell you the truth, majority of the people in that capsized boat are from Okpolodu camp in Ogwu-anocha, the last Community before Rivers State and Mputu. It is difficult to recover those bodies because some of the bodies will hand in some of the metals and trees inside the river.

“But as we talk now, we learnt 16 bodies were recovered late Saturday and we’re still waiting today (Sunday) to see what will happen. It’s a difficult situation for us. We are talking about the flood that has submerged virtually every building in Ogbaru and now this,” Ogbugbulu lamented

The immediate past Transition Committee Chairman of Ogbaru local government area, Arinze Awogu, gave the figure of recovered dead bodies as 13.

He said before the end of the day, more would be recovered, adding that it had not been an easy task.

“All hands are on deck. Recovering the bodies will not be easy and before night fall today (Sunday), we hope more bodies will be found,” Awogu said. (The Nation)

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