A wooden cargo boat, identified as Godbless Dickson”, laden with cargo and over 64 passengers and crew exploded, burst into flames leaving 20 dead in Bayelsa State waterways.

The Tide’s source learnt on Thursday that the tragic incident occurred on Wednesday along the Ezetu 1 Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area (LGA) of Bayelsa.

The Police Spokesman in Bayelsa State, ASP Musa Mohammed, told the source on telephone that 20 people have been so far confirmed dead, while rescue efforts by the Marine Police unit were still ongoing.

The ill-fated cargo boat laden with farm produce from the rural settlement was enroute Swali market in Yenagoa.

Chairman of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Bayelsa Chapter, Mr. Ogoniba Ipigansi, also confirmed the incident in a telephone interview with the source on Thursday.

He said a rescue team of the union, consisting of two speed boats, was dispatched to the scene to assist the passengers on board.

According to him, the exact number of casualties was yet to be ascertained, as rescue was still underway and several people on board yet to be accounted for.

A speed boat operator, Mr. Augustine Amayoro, who participated in the rescue efforts, said he rescued 10 persons from the scene, leaving other passengers stranded in the nearby fishing camp.

The source gathered that the wooden cargo boats were exempted from the state government’s ban on night navigation on waterways.

Due to the slow pace of navigation, the cargo boats set sail a day ahead of the targeted weekly market days of Thursdays when farm produce flood the Swali waterside in Yenagoa.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Southern Ijaw LGA, Chief Target Segibo, who bemoaned the loss of 20 persons in the incident, described the disaster as regrettable.

He called for concerted efforts by stakeholders to strengthen safety regulations in the marine transport sector.