19th August, 2012
The death toll in Saturday’s ocean surge at the Kuramo Beach in Lagos Nigeria has increased to four, with three more bodies recovered out of the 15 declared missing.
The general manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Femi Osanyintolu, who confirmed this today, said that divers and other rescuers were still searching for the remaining bodies.
Among the dead was a six year old girl identified as Bisi Kolawole.
The mother and sibling of the deceased girl were among those washed away by the ocean and their dead bodies have not been recovered.
The three bodies recovered today have been taken to the Isolo General Hospital Morgue by officials of the State Health Environmental Monitoring Unit.
Oke-Osanyintolu said 12 more people washed away by the ocean were still missing, saying that rescue operation was ongoing.
He said all shanties in the area had been demolished and the about 1,000 occupants advised to look for alternative accommodation.
Oke-Osanyintolu stated that LASEMA was fully on ground to monitor the situation of things at the beach and other water bodies, such as Alpha and Oniru Beaches.
“We are monitoring all our coastlines. Lagos is susceptible to flood. The Alpha beach, Oniru beach and others are being monitored. We are equipped for any emergency,” he said.
The disaster occurred at about 2.00 a.m. on Saturday, while residents of the beach resort were asleep.
Osanyintolu said most of the victims were those occupying illegal shanties at the waterfront.
“About 30 shanty houses belonging to … fishermen were affected by the surge,” said Iyiola Akande of the National Emergency Management Agency.
At the moment, Kuramo Beach and other waterfront resorts in the area had been cordoned off by security officials and personnel of emergency agencies.
LASEMA has also advised residents of waterfront settlements in Lagos to vacate such places immediately, for fear of a reoccurrence of the Kuramo Beach tragedy .
Kazeem Ugbodaga with additional wire reports