The Niger State Ministry of Transportation says a recent boat mishap in the state ended without casualties thanks to life jackets donated by the Federal Government through the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).
Commissioner for Transport, Hajia Hadiza Idris Kuta, represented by Permanent Secretary Lucky Barau, told journalists on Monday that the state had distributed 3,700 life jackets to boat operators across its 17 riverine local government areas. She said all passengers involved in the recent incident were wearing the jackets, which saved their lives.
Idris Kuta commended NIWA Managing Director Bola Oyebamiji for transforming inland waterway transport, noting that Niger State had also banned night travel and boat overcrowding, replaced wooden boats with fibre ones, and planned to introduce water marshals to enforce life jacket use.
“Currently, if you don’t wear a life jacket, you will not board the boat. This is our way of curbing the loss of lives on our inland waterways,” she said.