 Welcome back. Here's to watching the breakfast and plus TV Africa and your fewer than 13 more bodies have been recovered from the ill-fated boat sailing from mile 2 to Ibeche a suburb of Lagos State on Saturday bringing the total dead recovered dead bodies recovered to 17 the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA Zola coordinated Southwest Ibrahim Farin loyer May the disclosure in state in a statement. He issued yesterday in Lagos Farin loyer said that late yesterday That was on Saturday night rather two more bodies had been recovered in addition to the two early recovered in the morning With this it is now a total of 17 bodies recovered so far He says it has been found out that illegal operators are rendering services after the end of official hours of 7 p.m Thereby violating the inland waterways operation rules. Now. I'm glad to say we have joining us this morning on breakfast Oluwadami Lola Immanuel. He's the general manager of the Lagos State waterways. We're glad to have you miss Immanuel Thanks for your time Thank you so much. It's pleasure to be on online with you. It's a quite a sad tale so far 17 lives lost and these are You know people who probably were looking forward to See the end of the year and even the next year What's the status as we speak? Well, that's I think you just said it before we went on that Those are the amount of bodies that have been found 17 and very sad we concentrate with those who have Who lost this loved ones and the family the state government has been over to the family in Ibishi And to come and straight with them Is the search still ongoing for for for more bodies Absolutely absolutely We'll still search because as you know, it was done at and you mentioned it was done at an illegal hour So the exact number Right wasn't exactly known because they shouldn't have even set out at all at that point in time Um, what really happened for for those who you know are still trying to piece together I know we've had from Nema we've also had from some officials including yourself in the media But can you help us unpack what really happened that led to This accident probably you might say the investigation is still ongoing, but for now what can you say? Happened and led to this accident dismissed up Okay, first of all There were a group of people who were all family related apparently And they were in the mouth to axis And then they saw it and decided to call for a boat from Ibishi their own community At a time which they knew they shouldn't have called for that boat So even that operator who also drove the boat and came to Ibishi So what they did because they knew they could not take off from any approved state or federal approved jetty and They looked for a land a landing because they had their badge operations around that area So what they did was look for a sort of landing, which obviously was not very convenient So they called for a boat which which I would normally Make a nine to ten passengers So so let's look at it this way one they called for it was at the wrong hour Secondly, they overloaded the boat station have been on and I'm very sure as well They didn't all have live jackets on them because even when the bodies were found not all of them were found with live jackets so they broke all of the rules of the waterways and And From those who have stand and those who are around the area move on the bridge by trying to see them because Normally when this kind of things happen, there would always be a rest boat around something But because it was hours and it was obviously beyond the operational hours of even the boats There was no rescue So those who were looking at them sort of from the bridge said it looked like the boat captain had set out And then was trying to I don't know probably toy with something and then the way because at that point in time The ways were quite heavy and quite high Sort of moved him close to the badge and then that was the last they saw of them That's what the story of course investigation will still review more of what happened But I said definitely was I've been that the waves were the ones who sort of and then what happens I went the way it takes the boat like that everyone sort of begins to fight because you have begin to move less I remember that I even overloaded so naturally, you know just falling, you know into the water So with the concern let's get to you know The crux of this issue now because there's been a lot of concern and we know that the legal state government had at some point mentioned the fact that With the traffic situation, which reports that about 95 percent Of persons go through road transportation is done by road and so there's need for diversification People need to use other options of transportation and water would be one of the ways So the question would be if this persons did not move a distributed time Which was the reason for this accident Are we not supposed to have some level of regulation at this point in time? It would be government's responsibility Regulating, you know the operation or the affairs of the waterways so that people would do the need for just as you Have with airways you also have you know with the road and what have you is that not we should expect should we not expect some level of government presence regulating You know the safety on our waterways. That's on the one hand and on the other hand. I'd like to ask What's the capacity? You know of the state waterways because we know that at some point the corridors were very active There's some corridors. So you have the mile two to You know the marina axis and and and the reports and finding showing that that's even nothing to write him about So how safe is it? You know for what a transportation and available for legutions? Thank you very much. Well, let's let's let's look at everything you said and also of the they're all interrelated So let me take you from where we are Prior to now years ago. We used to witness a minimum of 10 to 12 accidents In a year on the waterways It was very prevalent was very frequent and of course the state government has to look at it and say, okay what can we do to improve these And of course reduce this amount of accidents and in the last three to four years I can say that we've seen those numbers drop by less than 50% and we're still not there yet and it was very intentional So what did we do one? We increased the amount of state personnel which are at state approved Right and also landing because the within the legacy waterways is you have a lot of shores Unfortunately, so you can't exactly say because we have people who have homes just by the water You know some people who abandon their homes and simply their homes are no longer being used and they want to use it for For movement of water transportation So there's a lot of land around the waterways in legal states, right? So what we've been able to do is one increase the personnel Who can adequately monitor everywhere where people are taken off from? So you usually find what we call our own water guards at these locations Secondly, we also of course have a monitored and a patrolling team Which handles safety in terms of security we have to work with the navy and the marine police To handle security of the waterways. We did not we didn't we didn't then also stop there We also went to one of the most important thing on water, which is the life jacket Which is a singular most important tool you should have on the waterways that life jacket in case of any emergency Will keep you safe One the state government because it is a very capital intensive sector The state government donates life jackets to even these operators as a form of subsidy to support them every year We carry out awareness and sensitization of these life jackets as well Of course of these life jacket wearing as well as strategic locations as well So there's been a lot of work done and that is why like I mentioned earlier We've seen it. Yes, it's sad that two happened just within a week But prior to now for example in this year, I don't know whether you ever whether you heard it Whether there was any of any incident that happened and like I mentioned before It was a frequent thing of almost every other month. We were having accidents So we're not yet there we'll continue to improve and that's where we are Now but the the the concern here is the fact that the reason for this accident according to it is that they had moved, you know At the time where they're not supposed to move there's a stipulated time and so the move beyond that time Shouldn't we have a body? Shouldn't we have some form of regulation and showing enforcement? We can just fold their arms and allow, you know, this person to engage and so if we had people who would ensure that Oh, it's beyond the time that you should take off and then you cannot go Maybe we would have actually avoided the incident. So that's where my question is Good, I like if I can mention that question, but let me also say this and put this back to you If I was going on the road, right? And I know that meant to stop by the red lights Right, and I don't stop by the red lights and then I break the red lights and my car get my car gets into an accident Would we say at that point in time that it should have been a traffic warden We should have stopped you at that point in time It's not an excuse for saying that we shouldn't form regulation, which is why I said to you People would always break the rules. They always break the law And that's why they have to face the full wrath of the law, which is why the last vote captain who was reckless in 2020 Who was reckless and caused the loss of so many lives has now been sentenced to life imprisonment So which so any operator who breaks the rules, right and it's caught Unfortunately the captain who did this lost his life in this incident by now He will have been in police custody and he'll have had to face the full wrath of the law for breaking all the rules All right, we're here to talk of illegal Board operators and this is still still an almost similar to what Messi has been asking you With all the work that your Your your your office has been doing to to sanitize the system He talked about the legal state government giving free life jackets and all that How come we have these illegal boat operators still You know preaching within the waterways of lager state I I reckon that they're not just operating under the cover of of night or darkness But even even the daytime. Um, so why do we still have this challenge with illegal operators on the waterways in lager state? Yeah, I don't think we mentioned I didn't use the word illegal operators No, no, I'm I'm quoting the um the head of the nigerian Emergency management agency the zonal coordinator southwest mr. Ibrahim farron loyer Who disclosed that he says quote it has been found out that illegal operators are rendering services After the end of official hours thereby violating inland waterway operate operations and rules No, I would say I would say they are preachers who are who are operating within illegal hours I'm not necessarily call them illegal operator. So because any illegal operator will be fished out, right? And the waterways to be honest in as much as very wide When wherever you're functioning in they usually have what we call associations They must be registered without association who registered in either the legal state waterways authority Or the national inland waterways authority. So they are recognized and they know the name of example This operator that I call illegal had a name on his boat If you are illegal, you're going to avoid putting your name on your boat. The name is gegella So there's a name on the boat Hmm What what what measures have been put in place and we know that your office have you've been doing some work Um, I mean, this is not to say you've not done anything at all But but if this occurred in in the in the daytime probably of course There still would have been in the same circumstances the turbulence and all that on the waterways There still may have been a mishap What what what measures are in place to to respond as quickly as possible? To to such, you know tragedies to such accidents in Lagos on Lagos waterways Thank you very much. Um, so with the measure that in place are we just upgraded our emergency and rescue units And what we did was to look at the two areas where we have massive traffic on a daily basis We have the koro do axis and we also have the odd job Which it covers egypt wherever covers mild to covers bad agree So to deploy those two upgraded search and rescue units so that within Five to seven minutes, right? We can respond but we know that that five to seven minutes anything could have happened So what usually happens in an emergency, right? Which will happen which I'm which we saw Even in the in the incident prior to that as well was that they are always the first responders because the waterways is large You have the fishermen. You have the nodders. You have the sand miners You have you know, you have different use of the waterways and all of all these stakeholders are all within a community Where if anything happens to anyone they are always the first responders to say oh We need to move quickly while we then respond because we'll have probably gotten an emergency call Or something like that. So we work with those Look especially the fishermen the local fishermen or and then and then the the the the sand miners But then we also have a lot of graded search and rescue units as well Is is it possible? I mean the the the the the the water spread and the the the the shoreline Let me say it's quite it's quite long. Is it possible to have You know an assessment of some of these jetties To see what to do Um, because from what we hear what you're saying. What name I'm saying It may be clear that they didn't take off from a government approved jetty Is is it possible because I know the shoreline is quite large and these are some of the challenges you face Is it possible to have this monitoring in other parts of outside the video? Absolutely. So what we do with every incident is to review, right? I this is developing sector, right? I will continue to improve. So one of the things you decided to do now is I'm sure, you know The legal state government has a neighborhood safety agency, which is the um, the they used to be called um Um neighborhood watch, but they are now the neighborhood safety agency, right? So what we're then going to do because our official hours are of course from about 6 30 a.m And then our officers will leave the jetty at 7 p.m Because the last boat should have gotten there Just about then or around 7 p.m, right? Okay. Now this boat left at 7 p.m. Yeah, so So so we will deploy um the neighborhood safety who can then be on 7 Um until about 10 o'clock watch over that space and if they notice anything of course flag to marine police or the Navy to build We have to go. Um sincerely his apology is uh, you know, we have to because of time But thank you so much for for joining us and for the insight you've given a lower down the lowline model General manager of the legal state waterways authority. Thank you for your time Thank you so much for being part of the breakfast. Thank you We uh had a great time talking with you and we look forward to Having this conversation Maybe we would like to dwell extensively Especially when we look at the fact that we need to diversify a means of transportation In the city of Lagos Well, that's the size of it If you missed out on any part of the conversation, it would be all right to follow us on facebook Twitter and instagram do subscribe to youtube channel plus tv africa and plus tv africa lifestyle We're also on limax tv. It's a w w dot limax tv And uh, you would definitely view us. I am messy, but we'll have a great morning And i'm kofi Bartels. Good morning