The body of Mr. Oluseye Adekunle, who jumped into the Lagos Lagoon on Friday was, yesterday, recovered by the State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA). According to LASEMA General Manager, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, a fisherman saw Adekunle’s floating body yesterday morning by a river bank in Lekki. He said that the deceased jumped off the Lekki/Ikoyi Bridge into the lagoon on Friday.
Tiamiyu explained that a coordinated effort of LASEMA, Lagos State Waterways Authority and Marine Police recovered the floating body around 5.00a.m.and handed it over to the Lagos State Health Environmental Monitoring Unit. Tiamiyu added:
“The body has been taken to the Lagos Mainland Hospital Mortuary for deposition. Police will carry out further investigations on the matter.”
Tiamiyu expressed worry at the suspected suicide, and appealed to citizens to be their brother’s keepers by reporting any suspected suicide plan in time to avert it. Tiamiyu said that relevant agencies and family of the deceased were consulted after the recovery to confirm the identity. He said that the recovery exercise closed at 11.30 a.m. This was even as fresh facts emerged that Adekunle came all the way from Ondo State, to attend a church programme in Lagos State.
It was gathered that the family members of the deceased are still in shock. The Managing Director of the Lagos State Waterways Authority, (LASWA) Damilola Emmanuel, said that the agency had earlier informed the local divers and fishermen around the axis to alert the agency of any strange body found on the lagoon in the course of fishing. Emmanuel said that immediately LASWA and LASEMA were alerted, they called for the family for identification. Emmanuel said:
“The deceased lived in Ondo State. He came to Lagos for a church programme. His body has been retrieved. It’s now left for the police to carry out further investigations. Our advice to Nigerians, especially Lagosians, is that the present circumstance in the country doesn’t warrant suicide.
No matter what happens, people shouldn’t take their lives. On our part, we will intensify monitoring of the waterways to avert such recurrence of incident.”
Emmanuel said that the state might consider installation of more CCTV on the bridge and under bridges with a view to monitoring the waterways. New Telegraph had earlier reported that at least 15 bodies are recovered daily on the state’s waterways. The Marine Police, which disclosed this, said some of the bodies were either dumped by criminals or as a result of suicide.