Boat Mishap Kills Four In Lagos

The Lagos State Wa
terways Authority (LASWA) has confirmed that four persons lost their lives to a boat mishap along the Irewe creek in Ojo Local Government Area of the state.
LASWA said the accident occurred at about 6:10pm on Tuesday when two passenger boats were returning from where they had gone to pick fun seekers that had visited some of the resorts in the riverine communities.
The authority said that the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency in conjunction with other relevant agencies were still searching for the missing passengers till late Tuesday night.
LASWA disclosed this on Wednesday in a statement made available to The Tide by its General Manager, Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, saying 13 passengers had been rescued so far from the mishap.
According to him, the two passenger boats had a head-on collision along the Irewe Creek.
“There were 10 passengers in a boat coming from Ojo Jetty and eight passengers in another coming from the Irewe Community when the incident occurred.
“Eighteen passengers in total were involved, with 13 rescued during the operation. But we recorded three fatalities, and two passengers including an adult and child are still missing,” he said.
Emmanuel assured that search and rescue operation would be intensified by relevant state agencies and the local community who were the first responders at the scene.
According to him, preliminary investigations by LASWA and LASEMA revealed that the incident was caused by reckless driving and overspeeding on the part of boat drivers, as one of them was not in his right of way.
“Further investigations would be thoroughly carried out by the authority and those found wanting will be sanctioned accordingly,” he said.
The Tide recalls that Lagos State has recorded several boat mishaps in recent times, with one on June 29 and another one on the Lagos lagoon claiming 10 lives.

Chinedu Wosu