Four persons, including a man believed to be the son of a World Bank contractor, have drowned in Egbe River in Egbe community of Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
The four were said to be workers on a World Bank assessment mission to the river and had commenced work on Tuesday night.
They were said to have come from Development Dams and Irrigation Schemes, Kaduna State and had died when the boat in which seven of them and their equipment were allegedly sailing, capsized.
The report says four of the occupants of the boat, who didn’t wear life-jackets died while three others survived.
The bodies of the dead were fished out by local fishermen, who were s mobilised by the chairman of Gbonyin Local Government Area, Mrs. Folasade Akinrinmola.
Mrs. Akinrinmola told Nigerian Tribune on the telephone that she was notified of the incident by the traditional ruler of the community.
She said: “We immediately mobilised a rescue team and an ambulance and those wearing life jackets were rescued. The rescued people were the ones who told us that others were in the water. Their bodies were later retrieved by the local fisherment.”
On their mission to the river, the council boss said “we believe that they were there based on some of the proposals we had written on the dam and how it could be put to use and we believe that the World Bank had started work on the river based on the calls.”
She described the incident as “unfortunate” saying that their bodies had been deposited at the mortuary in Ode-Ekiti, headquarters of the council area.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Police Command, Mr. Alberto Adeyemi, confirmed the incident, saying, “they must have come from the Federal Ministry because dams are owned by the Federal Government; their boat capsized, four of them died while three survived.”
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