Posted by By Eugene Agha on
No fewer than 11 persons were on Sunday feared drowned in a boat mishap in Badagry, Lagos bearly three days after a similar accident claimed over 40 lives in Onitsha.
No fewer than 11 persons were on Sunday feared drowned in a boat mishap in Badagry, Lagos bearly three days after a similar accident claimed over 40 lives in Onitsha.
The incident, which involved an engine boat conveying traders and market women, capsized in Ajido village, in Badagry Local Government Area and left all on board dead.
The incident was said to have occurred when the boat ran into an object at about 10.30am. Local fishermen were still battling, searching for bodies and trying to rescue those that may have survived as at late yesterday but eye witnesses said chances of any one being found alive were slim.
Some of the victims were said to have attempted to swim to safety but could not make it as some others held on to them and in the process pulled them down the murky waters, thus drowning them.
Traders in Ajidu Market were yesterday in a mournful mood, shutting the market for a better part of day while calling on the state and Federal Governments to come to their aid with modern ferries.
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, who confirmed the incident on phone, said every body on board died in the accident.
Ojajuni, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) however said details of the accident before him was still sketchy, but efforts were on to recover bodies of the deceased.
Most of the victims, he said, were traders, who went to the community market in Ajidu, Badagry, for shopping before they met their untimely death in the mishap.
''When I heard of the accident, I called the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Badagry Division to furnish me with details of the incident and he told me that all the passengers, apart from the boat crew, were traders who had gone to Ajido Market,'' explaining that some of the bodies had been recovered but it was feared that the others may have been carried away by the water.