By Amos Aar
THE family of Mrs Maria Michael who was killed by a Hippopotamus in River Benue on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, has confirmed the incident to National Record.
Mother of the deceased, Mama Naomi Enegoga, who was met in tears and deep mourning when National Record visited her residence at Katungu, Northbank, Makurdi last Friday, said her daughter, who was living with her, was killed by a hippopotamus at about 6pm between the old bridge and the new bridge in the River Benue.
Mama Naomi said the hippopotamus attacked a canoe that was conveying Maria alongside 7 other passengers.
Narrating how it happened, Mama Naomi, whose account in Idoma language was interpreted by the late Maria’s brother, Mr Adanu Joseph, said “on their way coming back from where she [Maria] went to buy vegetable, the hippopotamus broke the canoe and hit her on the head. They were eight in the boat but only my daughter died”.
Another resident of Katungu, Samuel Ohiomo, who owns a carpentry workshop close to the bank of River Benue, corroborated Mama Naomi’s account of the incident to National Record. Mr Ohiomo said his wife was in the same unfortunate boat attacked by the hippopotamus and that it was only Maria who died from the incident.
He said his wife lost one hundred thousand naira (N100,000) and that after the attack by the hippopotamus, the deceased had held unto his wife’s cloth so as not to be drowned and they almost died together.
Ohiomo, like many other Katungu residents, confirmed the presence of hippos in River Benue, particularly the point where the attack took place. He said although two hippos had been there for many years and sometimes would go out to people’s farms and houses close to the banks of the river without attacking people.
“They were farming at the riverside at the airport from here. So, they went there on Monday and wanted to come back around 2pm but the sailor who conveyed them to the farm did not go back to take them until 5pm. When the engine that was conveying them back home ran out of fuel, they were transferred to a small wooden canoe with a flying boat inside.
“When they reached a point where people gather sand from the river for sale, the hippopotamus appeared and scattered the canoe.
“My wife was sitting next to the woman who was later killed. When the hippo attacked and scattered the canoe, three persons were thrown close to the sand at the river shore. But my wife and the other woman were thrown into that deep place from where people extract sand.
“It was God that saved my wife because the woman who died held my wife by her cloth when she was swimming. So, she removed the cloth and left the victim with it. That’s what saved my wife. The hippopotamus was even pursuing the canoe that was evacuating the dead body.
“The hippopotamus has been there for a long time. Sometimes when it’s 6-7pm, nobody passes there again. There was a time it pursued one woman who sells fish by the riverside. Even last Sunday, the hippopotamus went down to Wadata around Agboughul side and pursued people there. The hippos are two. The other hippo was not behaving like that before until people said it was wounded by hunters when it went down to Wadata and it became aggressive since then and started attacking people,” Ohiomo told National Record.
The remains of the late Maria Michael who hailed from Ijaha Community in Agatu LGA of the state were buried at Ipogabu, Makurdi, where her husband’s brother resides. Mama Naomi explained that Maria was buried in Ipogabu to save the stress and cost of taking her to far away Agatu.
Maria, who was said to have died with pregnancy, is survived by a 3-year old daughter, Eneno, according to her bereaved mother.
Worried about possible further attacks by the hippopotamus, residents of area called on the Benue State Government to either kill the wild animal or retrain its movement in order to prevent more attacks since it has become too aggressive.
However, a lecturer in the Department of Wildlife and Range Management at the Joseph Saawuan Tarka University, Makurdi, Dr Mike Iwar, said on Radio Benue, Makurdi that the hippopotamus might have escaped from the university’s enclave.
Dr Iwar, who insisted that the hippopotamus has an economic value, observed that the animal’s specie was diminishing and so it was not advisable for it to be killed in spite of the aggression exhibited.
He insisted that the Zoological Garden of the Benue State University, Makurdi and other zoological gardens in the state should find a way of taking animals to its garden for the purpose of tourism and other benefits.
When National Record contacted Benue State Commissioner for Water Resources and Environment, Dr Godwin Oyiwona, to find out what actions the state government was planning to take in order to forestall further attacks by hippos, he said the ministry did not receive any report about any attacks on people by hippos.
