No fewer than three persons have been confirmed dead and two others still missing when two passenger boats had a head on collision along the Irewe creek in Ojo Local Government, Lagos State.
It was gathered that the accident occurred at about 6:10 pm when both passenger boats were returning where they had gone to pick fun seekers that had visited some of the resorts in the riverine communities.
It was gathered that the Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA and other relevant agencies were still searching for the missing passengers.
Confirming the accident, General Manager, LASWA, Oluwadamilola Emmanuel, disclosed that 13 passengers were rescued from the mishap.
Emmanuel narrated: “There were 10 passengers in a boat coming from Ojo jetty and 8 passengers in another coming from the irewe community when the incident occurred.
“18 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 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 due to reckless driving and over speeding on the part of boat captains 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 according”.
philanews 