By Our Correspondent
Months after the shocking boat accident that claimed Nollywood star Junior Pope and four others, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has ended the rumours.
Forget the stories of angry water spirits.
Forget the talk of river gods.
The real killer? Human error.
NIWA boss, Bola Oyebamiji, dropped the bombshell in Abuja during a high-powered transportation forum.
“It was not mechanical failure. Not impediments in the water. Not even the weather. It was purely a flagrant disregard for rules and regulations,” he declared.
According to him, some passengers refused to wear life jackets before the doomed trip – a reckless act that sealed their fate when the boat capsized.
The Managing Director warned that carelessness on water is a silent killer, no matter how famous or powerful you are.
The forum, attended by Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo, safety chiefs and Air Peace boss Allen Onyema, listened as NIWA vowed to step up safety campaigns across Nigeria’s waterways.
Junior Pope was returning from a movie shoot titled Another Side of Life when tragedy struck on the River Niger at Asaba in April 2024.
The revelation finally buries the wild myths of supernatural forces dragging victims to their death.
This, NIWA says, was man-made – and preventable.
