A boat has sunk off the Nigerian coast with up to 166 illegal immigrants’ people on board who some were going to Gabon and other East African countries.

The boat left the remote town of Oron in Cross River state and was heading across the Gulf of Guinea when it capsized 40 nautical miles (74km) offshore, officials told reporters.

The boat was believed to have sank on Friday but because the boat was on an illegal journey, it came to nobody attention until when local resident believed to be a fisherman sported the incident.

Vincent Aquah, director of the Cross Rivers State Emergency Management Agency SEMA told a news conference that a rescue operation had recovered 27 people so far.

He said only nine bodies had been fished out, although a doctor at a local mortuary also told reporters that 45 bodies have been brought in from the accident scene to the mortuary.

One of the survivors Kive Sani, 27, from Togo, said he had paid money to his Nigerian master to get him a good job in Gabon.

He said the accident happened because of a strong wave that swept through the wooden boat and devastated it.

“A huge wave swept onto the boat and knocked out the engine, and then everything started sinking, I hanged on to a gas cylinder for two days before I was rescued’’, he said.

Most poor West Africans who risk their lives each year to seek a better life head for Europe, usually via Spain’s Canary Islands but Gabon’s oil-funded relative prosperity has also made it a favorite destination.

With investment from former colonial ruler France, Gabon was one of the first sub-Saharan African countries to exploit its crude oil reserves, which have made its 1.5 million people among the continents richest on a per capita basis.

In July 2008, the bodies of 37 suspected illegal migrants were found dead on the seafront of Gabon’s capital Libreville, after a boat capsized taking the same Nigeria to Gabon route.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

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