Three persons have been confirmed drowned after a boat ferrying 14 passengers capsized along the Ibeshe-Ikorodu channel of Lagos State.
It was learnt from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday that two bodies had been recovered and 11 passengers were rescued following the accident that occurred at about 7:17pm on Monday.
The Managing Director, Lagos State Waterways Authority, Damilola Emmanuel, said the last passenger’s body was recovered on Tuesday.
He said, “We have also confirmed today that the last body has been found. This is why we always say rescue and search operations are always ongoing. We don’t like to just conclude because we are not there at the point of the incident. As we discover more and more, then we are able to also confirm. But this particular one (the third drowned passenger) you’re asking about has also passed on.”
According to the information made available to journalists, a 20-passenger capacity boat named Oluwaseyifunmi took off from Addax Jetty before the tragedy struck late Monday evening along the Ikorodu channel.
In a statement made available on Tuesday, the Permanent Secretary of LASEMA, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, partly said, “All the passengers rescued have been taken to Ibeshe Ferry Terminal.”
The spokesperson for the LASWA, Wuraola Alake, was also quoted as having said in a statement: “At about 7.17 pm today, the 26th of February 2024, a 20-passenger capacity boat named Oluwaseyifunmi, loaded with 14 passengers, was involved in an accident along the Ibeshe/Ikorodu channel en route Ebute Ipakodo Ikorodu taken off from Addax jetty, Lagos.
“Local boat operators from Ibeshe Jetty were the first responders; the LASWA team joined immediately in the rescue operations, in which 11 passengers were rescued with three casualties.
“LASWA and other first responders took all the rescued passengers to the Ibeshe terminal.”
A nearly similar incident occurred in February when one passenger was confirmed dead after an Ibeshe-bound 17-passenger ferry collided with submerged shoreline concrete at a construction site along a power line corridor at the Lekki Ikoyi.
