April 2014: In April 2014, a Bell Marine Services Boat conveying 20 passengers from Ebute Ero on Lagos Island to Majidun in Ikorodu capsized after hitting a rock in the lagoon, leaving eight of the 12 passengers dead.
This was the third boat accident within a period of one month in Lagos waterways, as another had only occurred three weeks earlier when a boat conveying 24 passengers capsized around FESTAC, killing 13 passengers, most of whom were said to be football fans who had taken the quick water-way option to get home in time for the European Champions league match that was to take place that evening.
A few days earlier, another boat had gone under water at Ogogoro Village in Navy Town, Apapa, killing 10 passengers, including a mother and her child.
Also one passenger, identified as Claire died, when a commercial boat ferrying nine people capsized around Bonny Camp at about 8pmon Victoria Island. The passengers were said to be returning from Ilasha Beach, where they had gone for rendezvous, when the accident happened. The other eight passengers were rescued alive by the rescue team that responded to their distress call.
March 28, 2014: Earlier this year, precisely the day of the last Presidential Election, the first son of Epe Monarch, Prince Kunle Adewale and his close friend and the All progressives Congress APC candidate for the Epe Local Council, Muiz Bello, drowned in the Epe axis of the Lagos lagoon, with 8 others, on their way to casting their votes in Mausa Village. Until his death, the prince was a Deputy Director in Lagos State’s Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. Fortunately Bello’s wife, who was also on the ill-fated boat survived.
In September, 2014, a passenger boat belonging to Okera Nla Boat Association capsized at the Bayeku area of Lagos, leaving five people drowned and 17 rescued. The passenger boat was said to been travelling at night from Okera Nla village.
March, 2013: Also in, nearly 100 people died when a passenger boat that set off from neighbouring Benin Republic capsized off Nigeria’s Southern Cross River state. The same story was told in Bayelsa State late last year.
February 2012: a boat conveying school children to school in St. Mary Anglican School, Igbede capsized, killing eight school pupils. The lone survivor, 14-year old Ade Hassan told the media how most of his school mates all perished due to the carelessness of one of the elderly passengers who stood up in the midst of a storm and tilted the boat. He said most of his colleagues died not because they could not swim, but because the storm was too heavy. He also revealed how he could only rescue himself and two others who sat close to him.