How I Lost 19 Nieces, Nephews In Lagos Boat Accident – Grieving Man Laments
Jimoh Mutawakilu, the personal assistant to the Ovori of Ibeshe, Oba Alani Gausu, has described how he lost 19 members of the Sumola Aniajogun family in the Ibeshe community in a boat mishap in the Mile 2 area of Lagos State a few days ago.
He said his family members died while returning home for the festival Jimalo in Ibeshe land.
Mutawakilu, also known as Jimalo, belongs to the Sumola Aniajagoun family. In an interview with Tribune, he said the victims were coming home for the Eid-El Kabir festivity. “I was supposed to be on that boat. I am lucky to be alive,” he said.
According to him, “On that fateful day, I was supposed to be the one to go and pick them up from the Mazamaza jetty. My elder brother, Alhaji Jimoh Ikilu Alosho, was calling me and I was also calling him back, but due to network issues, we couldn’t communicate with each other. We initially agreed to 4.00 p.m. for me to go and pick them up (the deceased) at the Mazamaza jetty, but due to network issues, I couldn’t hear my elder brother very well on the phone.
“It was when my elder brother couldn’t reach me that he called a son of one of our brothers, Jimoh Alosho Gafau, to go and pick them up from the jetty. Jimoh Alosho Gafau is popularly called Akube in Ibeshe. He was called to go and pick them up because my elder brother couldn’t reach me on the phone. That day, I had issues with my phone. I kept switching my phone on and off to ensure the network was okay, but all was to no avail. It was my wife that later called me and told me that Alhaji, my elder brother, was angry that he couldn’t reach me on the phone. Kabiyesi can testify to this.
“The next day was Sallah, so everybody was coming home to celebrate Eid-El Kabir at our family house. Among the dead were 12 females and seven males. There were corps members and undergraduates of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Lagos State University (LASU) among them. There were children, between ages three and four, among them.
“Our family celebrated Sallah in grief. All those that died were fasting that day because that was the day of Arafah. They were all fasting and had not eaten anything. So for us, there was no Sallah. We were all in grief due to the unfortunate incident.”
Asked what the family would want the government to do for them, he said, “What can government do for us that can bring back our loved ones that perished in the boat accident? There is nothing government can do for us. Only God can give us the strength to bear the loss. You heard what Kabiyesi said; that day, you people came. The boat drivers need orientation. We want the government to insist that before any boat leaves the Ibeshe Jetty, there should be permission from the Kabiyesi. Once most of these boat drivers start making money, nobody can talk to them again. So, we need the government to help us enforce discipline among the boat drivers. They need re-orientation.”
He identified the corps member among the victim as Jimoh Mariam Adejoke. “She was serving in Ilorin and came home to celebrate Sallah with the family. The undergraduate in UNILAG was Jimoh Famiat, a 200-level student of Mathematics. The one in LASU was Jimoh Muinat Bisola. She was a 300-level student of the Mass Communication Department of LASU. They were all coming home for Sallah before they met their untimely death on the waterways.”
He added that he was the one that went to bring all the corpses. “I brought them home for burial. It was indeed a sad moment to bury those that were supposed to be your support when you grow old,” he said.
Jimoh Mutawakilu
Lagos boat mishap claims 16 lives
By Gbenga Salau and Adaku Onyenucheya
• Four Bodies Recovered, Others Still Missing
• NIWA Declares Boat Captain Wanted
• LASWA Vows To Enforce Safety Measures
No fewer than 16 passengers are feared dead after their boat capsized around Mile 2 area of Lagos State on Friday, July 8.
Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) said that at about 7.45p.m., on Friday, it received a distress call of an incident on the waterways, which later revealed that a W19 passenger Fibre boat carrying 16 people capsized along the Ojo area of the state.
“The boat going from Mile 2 to Ibeshe in Ojo axis broke the waterways rules of late travelling by setting sail at 7pm. As the boat set out, the tide of the water drifted the boat to a stationary barge, which caused the boat to overturn.
It was said that all passengers on board, which included children, did put on their life jackets.
The Search and Rescue team of the LASWA, National Inland Waterways (NIWA) Nigerian Marine Police and the State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) were immediately mobilised to the scene but unfortunately, could only find the boat after several hours, while efforts were still ongoing to locate the victims.
LASWA said the boat is currently in the custody of Marine Police, while the boat captain was also unaccounted for as at press time, though four bodies have been recovered.
Meanwhile, NIWA, Lagos area office, has begun search for the captain of boat and had declared him wanted. But, a source the captain might have drowned.
According to a source, the boat carried 21 passengers and not 16 as reported. He said the driver took off from the wooden jetty at Mazamaza.
A woman who had three children on board was seen crying profusely and was being consoled by friends and family around Maza Maza Bus Stop.
Meanwhile, the government has vowed to enforce safety measures and go after substandard boat operators.
The General Manager, LASWA, Damilola Emmanuel, said while consoling the victims’ families. He said his agency had done so much to reduce cases of boat mishaps to the barest minimum.
Part of the safety measures was the Search and Rescue Unit, which was established to fully deal with incident operations in the different locations to improve response time during emergencies.
Emmanuel further disclosed that with the huge potential of water transportation in the state, the government was doing all it could to ensure that the sector was not only viable, but also safe as well as ready to come down hard on any operator, who endangers the lives of people while operating in the sector.
He admonished passengers on the waterways to be safety-conscious always.
“The life jacket can save you. Buy your own life if you must. Inspect the life jackets that you are given and make sure it does not have holes or is torn. Avoid night travels. Safety consciousness is a collective responsibility, if you see something unusual on the Waterways, say it,” he said.
Source: The Guardian