Not less than 4 persons were declared dead as a passenger ferry capsized in Lagos on Friday, 3rd of July, 2020.
The tragedy is reported to have occured when the ferry loaded 21 passengers instead of the full capacity of 20.
In addition to the overload, it undertook the journey at 8:00pm in contravention of the Lagos state ban on night rides on the Ikorodu channel of the waterways.
The General Manager, Lagos State inland waterways authority, LASWA and the Transport Commissioner gave the update this afternoon.
The report said that the ferry took off from the Ebutte Ero Jetty at about 8:00pm on Friday night and headed for Ikorodu. In transit, it hit an unforeseen object and capsized emptying all passengers into the river.
16 people were rescued alive, 4 dead bodies recovered soon after while the 5th is in critical condition.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Transport, Dr Frederick Oladeinde has commiserated with the families of the deceased travellers and promised that the violators of the avoidable tragedy will face the full wrath of the law.
According to him, if the boat operators had obeyed government’s “no night travel” directive, the ferry deaths would have been averted.
Mr Damilola Emmanuel, General Manager of LASWA reiterated that going forward, violators of the “no night travel” directive will be arrested by the marine police and prosecuted. Such violators include passengers and ferry operators.
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4 dead as ferry capsizes.