Teenage Boy Drowns At Bar Beach

A yet-to-be-identified teenager drowned at the Bar
Beach, Lagos as revellers celebrated Eid-el-fitri in
the area on Friday. A fun seeker, who witnessed the
incident and identified himself simply as Michael,
said there was a heavy traffic of persons at the
beach while there were only two live guards on
duty.

According to the witness, the teenage boy was
spotted by a few people who were standing at the
tip of the ocean. He said three unidentified young
men made frantic attempts to see if they could
rescue the drowning boy, but they could not
muster enough courage to move into the centre of
the ocean. He said the high waves of the surging
ocean were too much for the volunteers, who
eventually gave up the idea of saving the victim.

According to him, all the fun seekers around
watched helplessly as the boy struggled and was
finally submerged by water. However, other fun
seekers continued with their fun as if nothing had
happened.

It was learnt that nobody came out to complain
about a missing person before most of the fun
seekers left the beach. It was learnt that a young
lady initially raised the alarm, believing erroneously
that the victim was her brother, but she soon kept
calm when she saw her own brother.

Spokesperson for the National Emergency
Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, who
confirmed the tragedy on Friday, told Saturday
PUNCH that the victim had not been identified. “The
body has been taken to the mortuary. It is just sad
that this had to happen despite the warnings we
issued that people should stay off the beach
because of an impending ocean surge,” he said.

Farinloye said the warning issued by NEMA stated
that there might be an ocean surge of a minimum
of four days and maximum of five days, appealing
to revellers to avoid swimming at the beach for
some days. “People are allowed to go to the beach
but they should not swim. For some months, the
ocean had been monitored and the warnings
NEMA issued were consistent with the signs that
were noticed, which showed that there might be an
ocean surge,” he said.