Eight passengers were rescued when a commercial boat with 10 people onboard capsized in Badagry area of Lagos on Saturday. The i...
Eight passengers were rescued when a commercial boat with 10 people onboard capsized in Badagry area of Lagos on Saturday.
The incident occurred around 10.30A.M with the boat operator and a woman, still unaccounted for and feared drowned.
The latest incident came less than a week after a similar incident occurred at Ibeshe in the Ikorodu area of the state, where seven people drowned.
Rescuers from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the marine police and local divers were combing the waterways on Saturday afternoon in search of the missing two persons.
The spokesperson of NEMA in the South West region, Ibrahim Farinloye,
said the boat ran over a submerged log, causing it to capsize and throw
all the 10 persons inside overboard. The boat was said to be heading to
Badagry.
Farinloye added that only four passengers on board the ill-fated boat wore their life jackets.
He said: “We have always advised commercial boat operators to ensure
that all their passengers put on life jackets before leaving any jetty.
“The chairman of the jetty has reported at the office of the marine
police in Badagry. The boat took off from Idagba in Ojo with ten
passengers. The operator dropped them at Iworo and picked eight new
passengers to go back. It was on his way back that the boat capsized”.
General Manager of LASEMA, Michael Akindele disclosed that the boat
capsized around Iworo Ajido by Aradagun Bus stop, near Badagry.
According to Akindele, the agency received the distressed call through
the emergency call number of Lagos State at about 10.47am, adding that
“the agency immediately activated necessary emergency responders”.
