The South-West coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye, has said that the mission to recover the bodies of victims of last week’s Festac boat accident has been suspended.
Farinloye stated that the agency is uncertain as to the exact number of persons on board the boat at time of the accident and that no one has come forward with news of missing relations.
He said: “there is no relation that has come up with news that someone is missing and after continuous search of more than 48 hours without recovery any further bodies; the agency has no choice than to suspend the search”.
He advised the public to always adhere and listen to their messages on crisis and disaster management and prevention through their numerous sensisitation programmes, as this will go a long way to prevent future occurence of mishap.
Farinloye also said that a total of 30 local divers were contracted to conduct the underwater search but it was suspended since nothing was recovered.
He assured that all agencies were of the same view and that there was no conflicting figures concerning the number of casualties.
“No one was there when the boat loaded but one of the rescued victims said there were 24 people on board while some said there were 21 but what we are hoping to recover 24 bodies,” he said.
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