THE Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has ordered a probe into the July 8, 2022 Mile 2-Ibeshe fatal boat accident.
The accident, which occurred by 7.30pm, involved a W19 passenger boat, which capsized on its way to Ibeshe from the Mile 2 terminal. The death toll has, so far, reached 17.
According to a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, Sanwo-Olu was deeply saddened by the incident.
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“The police are probing what went wrong and treating the sad incident as criminal. The boat, which is said to be unlicensed, obviously broke the waterways rules of ‘no night travel’ and no overloading. Besides, not all of the passengers wore life jackets and the boat did not take off from a government-approved jetty,” the statement read in part.
Omotoso said the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Information and others were assisting the investigators.
He warned that anybody found to have contributed in any way to the tragedy would face the law to ensure any such incident does not happen again.
He stressed in the statement that the rules and regulations of the waterways were clear and must be respected in accordance with the greatest value that the Sanwo-Olu administration places on human life.
The commissioner expressed his condolences to the affected families.
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