Boat Accident: Rescue agency faults Isaac's family claim

The Lagos State Waterways Agency says it is not true that the Akere family recovered the remains of their member, Isaac Akere, from the Majidun River.

Isaac was the last of the victims of the Ikorodu boat accident, whose body was seen on the fourth day after eight others had been recovered and taken to the Ikorodu General Hospital Mortuary.

Isaac reportedly died with his fiancée, Foluke, a week to their wedding, along with two pregnant women, a 13-year-old and three others.

His family members had said they deployed some fishermen to the site of the accident after government rescue teams abandoned the search for his body.

LASWA, however, said it did not abandon the search for the missing corpse, but had deployed its team to the waterways until Isaac’s body floated around 6.45am on Saturday.

The agency further said the account of a survivor that the boat capsized due to overloading and speeding might not be true, just as it dismissed the account that the life jackets worn by the victims were fake.

The Managing Director of the agency, Olayinka Marinho, in an interview with the news corresponcents,   lamented the lack of adequate information in the public space since the tragedy occurred.

He said, “We never stopped searching for the missing person. On the first day, we rescued 14 persons alive, although one of them eventually died at the hospital. We then took seven other corpses to the Ikorodu General Hospital Mortuary.

“On the second day of the incident, we went back to get the properties of the victims which we took to the Marine Police unit, Onikan, so that their relatives could be contacted.

“On the third day, we recovered the boat itself from the water which was brought to my office.

“His (Isaac) body was recovered when it floated around 6.45am on Saturday, which was the fourth day. LASWA rescue team, with the assistance of other officers of Bell Marine Services, did the search. The body was taken to our head office at Falomo. It was then conveyed by the State Health Environment Management Agency to the morgue on the Island.”

Marinho said the agency’s investigation showed that the boat was damaged after hitting a log of wood on the river, which created room for water inflow.

“The logs usually float on the water; they are not stationary. The ill-fated boat had plied that area on the morning of the fateful day. It was coming back through the same channel in the evening when it hit the log. It was the log that penetrated the boat and created a hole which allowed water inflow into the boat and made it capsize.

“We have recovered the boat and all the logs on the waterways and we are already educating the loggers. This is not the first time that a log will be creating problems. Some operators had lost their engines to it in the past,” he added.

He advised those using the boat service to always ensure that they used their life jackets properly.

He said the survivors of the Ikorodu boat accident were located on the surface of the water after floating, while those who died did not either fasten their jackets or were without it.

“In all, we have seen the need to create more emergency exits in the boats to safeguard the lives of over one million people plying the waterways,” he said

….culled from the Punch Newspaper