The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), yesterday said that 13 more bodies were recovered from the ill-fated boat sailing from Mile 2 to Ibeshe, a suburb of Lagos, on Saturday.
The agency’s Zone Coordinator, South-West, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, who made the disclosure in a statement, yesterday, in Lagos, confirmed that a total of 17 bodies had been recovered, so far, from the recovery operations of the missing victims.
“Late yesterday night, two more bodies were recovered in addition to the two earlier recovered in the morning. With this, a total of 17 bodies have been recovered,” he said.
The coordinator decried illegal boat operators plying the waterways beyond the stipulated official hours which he said leads to avoidable deaths. He described the act as a gross violation of the regulations of the waterways guidelines for operators.
“It was revealed that the regulatory bodies have tried to stamp out illegal operations of small boat operators, who hardly use life jackets after official hours. But they do not heed to regulations put in place to stop them.
“It was also observed that wooden boats are not permitted to be used as passenger boats. But it is only at this odd hour that illegal operators always put the lives of unsuspecting passengers at risk,’’ Farinloye said.
He assured that efforts were on to address the gaps with all stakeholders, such as the Nigerian Navy’s Special Boat Service, the Association of Boat/Ferry Operators of Nigeria and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), among others.