Bayelsa residents worry over safety on waterways as rainy season sets in

As the rainy season starts in the country with its attendant flooding in Bayelsa State, residents and transporters plying the state’s waterways have expressed worry over the safety of passengers and crew members. Most of the local government areas and communities in Bayelsa State are only accessed through the river, and the terrain always give […]

As the rainy season starts in the country with its attendant flooding in Bayelsa State, residents and transporters plying the state’s waterways have expressed worry over the safety of passengers and crew members.

Most of the local government areas and communities in Bayelsa State are only accessed through the river, and the terrain always give the locals and residents course for panic during the rainy season when water level is always on the high tide.

Though most boat operators and passengers worry less over the mishap due to water level, but they however disturbed about the activities of sea pirates.

According to them, most of the mishap in the sea in Bayelsa State are caused by sea pirates, who pursue, shoot at and dispossess passengers, a situation that mostly lead to boat mishaps in the process of trying to dodge from the pirates.

Last December, about five policemen on election duty during the by-elections into vacant seats in Bayelsa Central and West senatorial districts who were onboard to Oporoma, headquarters of Southern Ijaw local government, got drowned during a boat mishap.

A boat operator at Swali waterfront in Yenagoa, Eric Ebipade, said despite the rise in water tide during flooding, if the passengers are well kitted and observe marine transportation protocols, there is no need to panic about mishap.

He said: “Here in this beach, we observe all the safety procedures, we don’t allow any passenger board our boat without wearing life jacket, which will help him/her float in the river in case of any eventuality, also, in most Bayelsa communities, we have local divers who are always ready to help during accident.

“We were born and live around water, we make our daily bread on water, so, you hardly see any Bayelsan that cannot swim. We are Ijaw people, we know water and it knows us. We are mostly worried over the activities of sea pirates who attack, kill, and disposess passengers on the water ways. Most times, their activities cause mishap.

“The waterways are not safe anymore, that is why we plead with the security agencies to increase their presence in the waterways to ensure that these hoodlums terrorizing our routes are fished out,” he said.

At Ayama-Ijaw waterside in Southern Ijaw local government, a boat operator who identified himself as Henry said the mishap in Bayelsa waterways always happen once in a while, stating that since the last December incident where some policemen on election duty were drowned, none has happened again for now, and it’s because they adhere to all safety protocols in marine transportation.

“We don’t carry above the capacity of our boats, we also observe water movement before we begin our movement, so that our boat will not clash with the wave, which mostly cause accident. In short, it’s during this flooding season when the water level is high that we enjoy boat movement.

“The only challenge we have is insecurity in the river due to the activities of sea pirates, which is why we are begging the government to increase security surveillance on the waterways,” he said.

Last month, gunmen suspected to be sea pirates attacked a 115 Horse Power Mienye Marine speed boat carrying nine passengers from Swali water front in Yenagoa to Koluama 1 in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, killing five-year-old Comfort Isegu.

The little girl, who was among the two children travelling with their mother, Lovina Isegu, met her untimely death when the pirates shot at the boat while the driver was meandering away, upon sighting the pirates.

The state chairman of the Maritime Workers Union, Comrade Ogoniba Ipigansi, had in a statement confirmed that the boat driver, Mr Okilo Orubiko, also got shot in the process.

According to Ipigansi, Mr Orubiko sustained severe degree of injury resulting from the bullet, but he managed to take the boat and passengers to Koluama 1 successfully, which was not far from where the incident happened.

Mr Ipigansi, who said the driver was rushed to Yenagoa for treatment, called on the Bayelsa State and Federal governments to take seriously the issue of security of lives and property of drivers and passengers plying the waterways in the state.

He decried a situation where boat drivers will be adopting all necessary protocols to ensure safety on the waterways but hoodlums will be hiding in the river to cause accident.