The body of a photographer who was inside the vehicle that plunged into the lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos on Saturday has been recovered.
The recovery comes days after the body of the female driver, whose identity has not yet been disclosed, was also retrieved from the water by local divers and rescue officials.
According to reports, the accident occurred around 5:11am near the Rapid Response Squad checkpoint inward Iyana Oworo, Ebute Meta.
Confirming the development on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, told PUNCH Metro, “The second victim’s body was recovered yesterday (Tuesday).”
Eyewitnesses had alleged that the female driver’s body was only retrieved after her grieving family paid N400,000 to fishermen before they agreed to dive into the lagoon.
A social media user, @dee-ah, in an open letter to the Lagos State Government, expressed outrage at the handling of the incident.
She wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that I write this. Yesterday, tragedy struck close to home. We lost a promising young lady, the niece of my best friend, in a car accident that resulted in the car plunging into the lagoon.
“The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but what is more painful is the response that followed. LASTMA and Marine Police were at the scene, but there was no meaningful rescue effort.”
According to her, distraught family members were forced to rely on local fishermen who identified the location of the submerged car but demanded payment before taking action.
“In the end, the task fell onto local fishermen. They knew what had happened and even identified the exact spot where the car was. But before they would act, they demanded N400,000 to dive into the lagoon to search for the body of the victim.
“In their grief, the family paid, not because they were bargaining, but because they simply wanted her body back for a proper burial,” she lamented.
She further appealed to the government to “empower, train, and equip local divers and fishermen to enable them to act as first responders in emergencies.?
“Can a fund or structure be created so that, in moments like this, money is not placed above humanity? We pride ourselves as the ‘Centre of Excellence’, but tragedies like this reveal the gaps in our society.”
The Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service had earlier confirmed the incident on Sunday.
The Director of the service, Margaret Adeseye, stated, “It is a self-accident involving a Toyota Camry car with registration number LSR 384 BE that plunged into the lagoon with a lone occupier as the driver.
An Instagram user wrote, “There were two people in the car: a man and a lady who were like family to the skateboarding community in Lagos. The other passenger was Chado, my friend and a photographer.”
Tributes soon poured in online after the shocking news.
Olori Elizabeth posted on Instagram, “Our heartfelt condolences to the family. We urge the government to bridge aid gaps so that such incidents do not recur.”
Another Instagram user, @Orekelomo, faulted Nigeria’s emergency response, describing it as “poor.”
“The response to emergencies in Nigeria generally is poor. This is the reason I stopped taking the boat to work after ten years of surviving it,” the user wrote.
PUNCH.
