11 more bodies have been recovered from Lagos waterways after a 17- passenger fiber boat capsized at about 7.45pn on Friday.
This brings the total number of recovered bodies to 15 at 3.50 pm on Sunday.
It will be recalled that emergency responders from both state and federal levels recovered four bodies on Saturday but Sunday, 11 more bodies were recovered during the rescue operation.
Giving updates on the incident, the Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Lagos State Ibrahim Farinloye, said there were possibilities that two more bodies were sighted but this could not be confirmed until final recovery is done.
According to Farinloye, a search and rescue operation was ongoing.
“Late yesterday night (Saturday), two more bodies were recovered in addition to the two earlier recovered in the morning.
“With this, it has become a total of 15 bodies recovered.
“It has been found out that illegal operators rendering services after the end of official hours of 7:00 pm thereby violating the Inland Waterway operation rules are been permitted.
“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 more efforts should be put in place to stop them.
“It was also observed that wooding boats are not permitted to be used as passengers boat but it is only at this odd hour the illegal operators always put the lives of unsuspecting passengers at risk.
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“Efforts are on the motion to address the gaps with all stakeholders such as Nigerian Navy’s Special Boat Service, Association of Boat/Ferry Operators of Nigeria, LASWA, NIWA, NEMA, and Marine Police to address the situation.” He said.