A boat  carrying 166 passengers  have  sunk  in Calabar, Nigeria.

A Marine Transporter at the Calabar Inland Waterways, Ikechukwu Egwu confirmed the incident to National Mirror adding that the passengers of the boat were mostly Igbo traders who were travelling to Gabon.

He said they boarded the wooden boat because it was cheaper.

The mood at the morgue of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, where 45 corpses of some of the victims have been deposited was that of gloom and people thronged the hospital to try to identify the remains of loved ones.

Official sources said the victims’ corpses were brought to Calabar instead of Malabo, where the mishap occurred, because they were believed to be Nigerians.

The Boat Carrying 166 Passengers

The boat left on Friday from the remote town of Oron, in Cross Rivers state, across the Gulf of Guinea and was heading to Gabon, in central Africa, traders said.

By UP