A boat carrying mourners from Azizanya to Azizakpe in the Volta region has capsized on the Volta Lake. Five of the over 20 passengers onboard have been confirmed dead while a rescue mission is ongoing to save the rest. Assemblymember for Azizakpe Electoral Area, Daniel Adzakpa, confirmed the disaster to 3news.com. He said there was a storm Saturday morning as the boat was ferrying the mourners to a funeral in Azizakpe and that caused the capsizing.
The Assembly member said the boat should have carried approximately 25 passengers but he gathered there were more on-board. “The boat was overloaded,” he stated on TV3‘s Midday Live on Saturday, March 18.
Hundreds of residents including other mourners were seen praying for good news as the rescue mission was carried out. Mostly women, the residents were standing on the banks of the river shouting out prayers for the missing to be found.
UPDATE ON THE INCIDENT
Sailor Gabriel Ajigodi, who was at the helm Saturday morning when his boat capsized on the Volta Lake, is in the grips of the police, 3news.com can confirm. He is currently in custody at the Ada Foah Police Station, where he is being interrogated over the deadly voyage.
Five persons were confirmed dead while several others were missing after the boat, carrying mourners from Azizanya to Azizakope, capsized on the Volta Lake. Assemblymember of the area Daniel Adzakpa told TV3 after the disaster struck that the boat was overloaded.
The boat, which was supposed to carry 25 passengers, had over 60 on-board. According to some survivors, they alerted Gabriel Ajigodi about the overload and pleaded with him to return them to their boarding point.
Twenty-two-year-old Mary Donuki told TV3‘s Joseph Armstrong on Saturday that when they realised that the load was too much they asked to be returned to Azizanya.
The sailor is said to have ignored the pleas and said he would take them to Azizakpe safely. The disaster, however, occurred mid-journey. Mary Donuki lost her only one-and-a-half-year baby. There is still a search party in the area striving to locate some more survivors.
By: Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3News.com
