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National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), has arrested and impounded a private passenger boat conveying about 12 school children within the age of 15-18 without putting on life jackets on the Lagos Lagoon.
The school children, who were to attend a school event at Osborne, were on open boat, identified as students of the Government Secondary School, Tarkwa Bay.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, General Manager, Lagos Area Office NIWA, Mr. Muazu, said that the two suspects paraded in connection with the boat, which is the boat operator and the boat driver would be charged to court under extant laws, so as to serve as a deterrent to other operators in the industry.
He lamented that the route from Tarkwa Bay is one of the busiest and most dangerous routes on Lagos waterways, adding that none of the school children conveyed through the route wore a life jacket on the open boat.
He emphasised that a standard approved life jacket is an essential requirement for water transportation and its use is mandatory, for it is the only tool that helps to ensure the survival of lives in the unfortunate event of a mishap.
He added: “what is more, nobody can rule out possibility of a mishap occurring on any given time, as result of several factors that may be beyond human control. NIWA places a very high premium on the safety of lives on water. The Authority had only recently toured all passenger jetties in Lagos on sensitization campaign on safety, with particular emphasis on the use of life jackets, amongst other requirements. We view this incident as a gross travesty of this campaign, which consequences could have been the avoidable loss of precious young Nigerian lives.”
However, he bemoaned that is disheartening to note that in spite of sensitization campaigns embarked upon by NIWA with private boat operators, the Authority can still catch a boat carrying passengers on water and none of them wearing a life jacket.
Consequently, he added that, “we have lost so many lives from boat mishaps that every necessary step must be taken to protect further loss of lives on our waterways.”
