Two persons have been confirmed dead and several missing when a Cameroon-bound commercial boat with 25 passengers sank in the high sea between Nigeria and Cameroon.
The boat, which reportedly left its base off Marina road in Calabar by the shorelines on Tuesday, ran into high tidal waves on the high sea near the Cameroon waterways and sank with goods worth millions.
Cross Rivers Police spokesman SP Irene Ugbo confirmed that the incident had been reported to the Marine Police department.
She said two dead bodies have been discovered, five survivors brought back to the Calabar base while a number of other passengers were missing.
A businessman, whose goods were in the boat, also confirmed the incident.
He said about 25 persons, including passengers, the boat crew and others were in the boat when they left Calabar.
Mr. Samuel Chukwuemeka who is one of the major distributors for Molfix diapers in Nigeria said his multi-million naira worth of goods were loaded in the boat with others such as wine and beverages.
Chukwuemeka said he was informed of the incident on Wednesday and none of his goods could be rescued.
By his account of the incident, he said the cause of the incident is the turbulent wave and not overloading.
He said his goods in the boat were for his customers in Cameroon.
“It was late at night hours, going into Wednesday morning that I got a call that the boat had issues on the way.
“The person didn’t tell me what was the actual issue until Wednesday morning that I got the information that the boat sank and all the goods and passengers could not be found,” he stated.