TheCable

Abisola Kamson, managing director of Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), says the death toll in the boat accident in the Ilashe area of the state has risen to 12 from nine reported on Sunday.

Kamson also said the unfortunate incident could be attributed to overloading of passengers and operation of illegal jetty.

“While commiserating with the families of those that lost their loved ones, the state government said the mishap had again brought to the fore the need for the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to respect the recent verdict of the court of appeal which upheld the powers of the state government to control its intra-inland waterways,” he said in a statement.

“We sympathise with the families of the deceased as 12 lives were lost in the mishap and four people receiving treatment in the hospital.

“The LASWA rescue team has been on ground and search is still ongoing. This brings to fore again the need for NIWA to allow the judgement of the appeal court granting Lagos control of her waterways to take effect without hindrance.

“It is a matter for regret that ever since the judgement was pronounced, NIWA has ejected all state water guards monitoring standards from all federal owned jetties. In spite of this, the government of Lagos state aligns to the safety of citizens on the waterways. All Lagosians are enjoined to wear standard life jackets at all times on our waterways.”

The Lagos state government and NIWA have been engaged in a court battle since 2008 when the state government had tried to control the waterways and a federal high court had ruled that 1999 constitution places the control of the inland waterways on the exclusive list to be controlled by the federal government.

The case has since been transferred to the supreme court after both parties had interpreted an appeal court judgement delivered on July 18 differently.