Some family members of the victims of the Ikorodu boat mishap are complaining over what they described as the no-information posture of Bell Marine, operators of the capsized boat and the Lagos State government.
The outcry is coming on Friday, three days after the boat capsized between Eko Bridge and Ikorodu waterways in Lagos State, leaving at least eight people dead. Twelve persons were rescued.
Family members of the victims gathered at the Majidun boat jetty in grieve and pain over their lost loved ones.
The relatives of one of the victims, Mr Isaac Akere, whose body was later recovered had complained that they were left in the dark by the operators of the boat.
Mr Akere’s fiancee also lost her life in the incident.
Some other family members are finding it difficult to retrieve the bodies of the victims.
Some were told to get documents from the police before they would be allowed to take the corpse away.
A member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who is from the area, promised the grieving persons that the government would do all it could to ensure that the issues were resolved.
“I have listened to all the complaints and they are genuine. We are going to the hospital to resolve that part of it,” she said.
The Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) said it had retrieved the capsized boat.
Contrary to speculations that the boat accident was due to over speeding, LASWA said that it struck a log of wood before it eventually capsized.
The Managing Director of LASWA, Yinka Marinho, said the vessel got a punctured base after running over wood logged beneath the waters.
He said that the claims that the boat was over speeding was not correct.
“We will examine the boat to see where the log hit the boat. It was the impact of the log that opened the vessel for water to go in and it eventually capsized.
“It is an unfortunate incident and we pray for the lost souls that God will grant them peace. We are in contact with the association of loggers on indiscriminate logs on waterways.
“We pray that this will not happen again and we are looking at redesigning the windows in the boat to create routes for escape to forestall a re-occurrence of such in the future,” Mr Marinho said.
To avoid a long stay in traffic usually on Ikorodu road route, residents from the area have embraced the use of boat which reduces the journey time, but the accident has highlighted the need for more efforts to be made to ensure that the waterways are safe, even as the state government is wooing more investors in the sector.
