By VINCENT KALU, CHRISTOPHER OJI and GILBERT EKEZIE
Six more bodies of victims of last Saturday’s Atlantic Ocean surge at Kuramo Bar Beach, Victoria Island, were recovered yesterday by officials of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA). The swollen bodies with parts of their skins peeled, were swept to the bank of the ocean.
The police gave the names of the recovered bodies as, Joseph Oke, Olumide, Mary, Daniel Ajose, Olorunwa Babatunde and Alhaji Babatunde Benson (aka KC). Lagos State police spokesman, Ngozi Braide, said more dead bodies might be recovered before the end of the day. According to a LASEMA official, men of the agency had been on ground since the day of the incident to see if more bodies could be recovered.
The LASEMA official, who craved anonymity, said though there were no divers to get the remaining bodies, they relied on the ocean current to sweep out the remaining to the shore, noting that it was possible that some of the bodies would be carried to shores far away from the scene of the accident. “We recovered four yesterday.
The ocean current brought them out to the bank of the beach. In fact, this can be described as luck because many of the bodies cannot be found since we don’t have divers, so any victim’s body that the water brings out is lucky and that is why we are always here to see if there are going to be more bodies.” The recovered bodies were taken to the Lagos State Hospital Mortuary, Marina. An official of the EKO Atlantic Construction Company responsible for the sand filling of the Bar Beach described the incident as a disaster that needed urgent attention. He pointed out that his organisation was presently working towards ensuring that the surge did not extend to Eko Hotels and surrounding streets.
“This is really an emergency situation. What happened here is a disaster and that is why we are tackling it without delay because any delay could be more dangerous as the water can get to Eko Hotel, Ajose Adeogun and surrounding streets.” Even as the workers of Eko Atlantic are busy sand filling the affected area and LASEMA officials on standby to recover more bodies, fun seekers were having swell time catching fun and swimming.
Some of them told Daily Sun that the ocean surge incident could not stop them from going or doing businesses at the beach. One of them, Jumoke, described the incident as an accident that could occur anywhere, any day. “Well, the incident has happened and God knows why it happened. However, it will not stop people from coming to the beach. This is where many people come to ease off stress, so it will continue no matter what happened.” Another visitor at the beach, Jack, pointed out that as long as tourism was concerned, people would continue to visit or do businesses at the beach.
“Here is a tourism centre. So people will continue to come here. Yes, we learnt that about 16 people were swept off by the ocean here last Saturday but that does not mean people should not come here to catch fun anymore. “After all, motor accidents happen and many people die, yet others board vehicles to their destinations. So, it is one of those things.” The only thing is that people should be more careful. Also, if government knows that this is a tourist center, they should put the necessary safety measures in place to avoid the tragedies that we witness at some public places like this.”
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