The Lagos State Waterways Authority on Friday recovered the wreckage of the boat which capsized on Wednesday evening at Majidun, Ikorodu, Lagos State, its Managing Director, Olayinka Marinho, has said.
Marinho told the News Agency in Lagos on Friday that the 22-capacity boat, which belonged to Bell Marine Transport hit a log on the waterways and this led to the accident.
The boat departed Ebute-Ero on Wednesday at about 5.30pm for Ikorodu, before the unfortunate incident occurred at the Majidun River axis of the Lagos lagoon, he said.
He said: “As at today, we’ve been able to retrieve the boat and you will see under the boat that there is a huge hole where the boat hit one of the logs that was being transported by loggers.
“This caused a big hole underneath the haul of the boat, allowing inflow of water into the boat, which then caused the boat to go down.
“It’s a very unfortunate incident.
“May the souls of all the departed rest in peace.”
According to Marinho, we have been able to salvage the boat and bring it up to our head office in Falomo, where we will hold it in custody.
He said LASWA would investigate further and have a meeting with the loggers, to prevent a recurrence of the incident.
The managing director blamed the loggers for fastening the logs together as they travelled across the waterways.
Marinho said: “It is impossible to see the logs on the waterways.
“It is unfortunate that he boat ran into a log and the size of the log is quite considerable to have caused such a dent.”
Marinho said that a search was still ongoing to recover the body of one person who was still inside the lagoon.
He said: “We are still within the waterways searching for him.
“A team will be sent out to the waterways this evening to search for the body.
“There is another team that will continue the job on Saturday morning.
“So we have not relented in our efforts to find the missing person.”
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