Authority in Mingkaman says it has arrested a captain of a boat after a passenger fell off and drowned on Wednesday evening on River Nile. The boat was ferrying passengers from Bor to Mingkaman. An official says the incident happened at around 5 pm.
An eyewitness says the man was seated at the edge of the boat when he fell off and drowned. The victim is identified as Mr. Long Mading Jool, age 22. By the time of this report, his body had not been recovered from the river yet. The search was called after many failed attempts to locate the body.
Major Elijah Mabor Makuac is a police spokesperson in Lakes state. He says the boat captain has been detained as the police investigate the incident.
Mabor says the captain will be arraigned in court after completing the investigation. “We wanted to find out exactly from the captain whether this man got into the boat drunk or, if so, why would they allow him to board. So, we shall get all those inquiries from the captain.”
He further says the police are charging the captain for negligence and failing to maintain safety measures. He cautioned the local boat union leaders to ensure safety measures are strictly observed including avoiding overloading and disallowing drunk passengers on board.
Gabriel Agui Apet, the chairperson of the boat’s union in Mingkaman, says the people on board with the deceased tried their best to rescue the man but were unsuccessful.
He promises to revise the departure time for the boats to 12 PM to avoid problems in the river Nile.
“All those boats that came stop and helped search for the man, but they couldn’t manage to find him.”
Agui said all he knows is that the guy was drunk. He said sometimes his office registers passengers to make sure they keep records of boat travelers to identify the persons during such accidents.