Emmanuel Thomas
July 2, 2015 – Not less than six corpses of pupils who drowned in Wednesday’s boat mishap in Ojo area, Southwest Nigeria have been recovered by the Lagos State Government.
Managing Director, Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, Yinka Marinho who made the revelation at a press briefing in Lagos said that three of the bodies were recovered yesterday while the other three were found earlier today.
He said that 14 children survived the tragedy, adding that what happened was that a Motorised Boat ramped into a canoe carrying the children to school when the motorised boat developed fault midway in the water around Irewe, Ojo.
According to him, the operator of the boat was trying to fix the problem in the river when it ramped into the canoe.
Marinho disclosed that captain of the motorised boat has been arrested and detained at the Railway Police Station adding that passengers in the boat were not wearing live jacket despite the fact that the government had distributed 3,500 life jackets to boat operators.
He said the State had 53 water terminals were all registered boats must take off, adding that no boat operator dared to leave the terminal without its passengers wearing life jackets, adding that there are life guards stationed in these waterways to ensure that the waterways law were followed.
The LASWA boss stated that many canoes plying the waterways, especially those from riverine communities were not captured in the ones to be monitored by LASWA, which informed reason why many of them did not use life jackets.
He said government 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 sets 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 the nooks and crannies of 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 on violators.
In his reaction, General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu appealed to those using the waterways to always put on life jacket in order to minimise death.
Director General, Lagos Safety Commission, Odebunmi Dominga vowed that the government would enforce the law and ensure that people using the waterways always wear life jackets.
