Boat Mishap: Lagos Recovers Bodies Of 6 Dead Children

Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government says the bodies of six children who drowned in Wednesday’s boat mishap in Ojo area of Lagos, western Nigeria, have been recovered.

At a news conference in Alausa, Ikeja on Thursday, Managing Director, Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, Yinka Marinho disclosed that three of the bodies were recovered yesterday and three today.

According to him, eight of the 14 children survived the tragedy as six unfortunately died, adding that what happened was that a Motorised Boat rammed into a canoe carrying the children to school when the motorised boat developed a fault midway in the water around Irewe, Ojo.

He explained that the operator of the boat was trying to fix the problem as his boat stopped in the water when it rammed into the canoe despite shouts by the children.

Marinho disclosed that the captain of the motorised boat has been arrested and detained at the Railway Police Station.

He lamented that the passengers in the boat were not wearing life jackets despite the fact that the government had distributed 3,500 life jackets to boat operators.

He said the state’s 53 water terminals where all registered boats must take off, adding that no boat operator must leave the terminal without its passengers wearing life jackets.

He said there were life guards stationed in the waterways to ensure that the waterways law were obeyed.

Marinho said many canoes plying the waterways, especially those from riverine communities, were not among those to be monitored by LASWA, which was why many of them did not use life jackets.

He said government did not have enough manpower to monitor them, adding that since many people did not ply such areas, much attention was not always paid to them, but noted that government would now pay attention to monitoring them.

Marinho further disclosed that in the next few weeks, another set of 2,400 life jackets would be distributed to boat operators while another set of 1,800 would be distributed for the use of school children in riverine areas.

He stated that in the next few days, the authority would comb riverine areas of the state to take a census of school children to know the number of life jackets to be provided for them.

Marinho added that government would ensure that the use of the life jackets were monitored with appropriate sanctions meted out to violators.

General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu appealed to those using the waterways to always wear life jacket in order to minimise death.

Director General, Lagos Safety Commission, Odebunmi Domingo vowed that the government would enforce the law and ensure that people using the waterways always wear life jackets.