No fewer than six children got drowned in Lagos State when a boat ferrying about fourteen of them to school collided with a bigger vessel and capsized on Wednesday, July 1, 2015.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference on Thursday, July 2, 2015 the head of the Lagos State Waterways Authority, LASWA, Yinka Marinho, said, “We could rescue eight of the passengers… Six that were missing have been found. Unfortunately, none survived.”
Marinho said the boat carrying the children collided with a speed boat that developed a technical fault while on the water and it was observed that none of the children were wearing life jackets, although it was made compulsory on Lagos waterways.
The LASWA boss added that the captain of the speed boat had been arrested.
He noted that the state government had handed out thousands of life jackets since 2012, “to forestall these incidences.”
The victims and of course many other residents in the state possibly preferred to journey through the waters in a bid to avoid monster traffic jams.
It would be recalled that the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, recently warned users and operators of vessels on Lagos waterways to take extra precautions during the current rainy season to avoid
