‘We had initially turned them back’, Lagos beach reacts to drowning of four teenagers

The management of the Elegushi Beach in Lagos State has reacted to the drowning of four teenagers who went swimming to celebrate their external examination success at the beach on Tuesday.

Chief Ayuba Elegushi, while speaking on behalf of the beach management, said in a statement made available to newsmen that the incident occurred at an unmanned section of the beach area, which was not open to the public.

According to him, about 10 teenage boys visited the beach on Tuesday morning to celebrate the success of their West African Examination Council (WAEC) results.

He said while the beach authorities and security team had turned them back, the boys took a detour and went to an unmanned section of the beach area to swim.

He said unfortunately, about 10 of them were almost drowning before the beach security was alerted to the scene and six of them were rescued alive while four were not that lucky.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident, adding that investigation was ongoing.

He said, “The teenagers were from Kuramo Senior College, Lekki. Four of them are missing. They are two males and two females. Efforts are on to recover their bodies. We have yet to meet with the parents of the victims.”

Elegushi said, “We initially sent them away from the area of the beach they wanted to swim in. Then, they went to another place that was not for the public at all. It was the child of our kinsman, Abass, who took them from school to the beach and those kids followed him.

“They did not pay any gate fee to access the beach. Abass used the leverage that he was one of us to take them through another place.”

The victims were said to have raised the alarm as the water swept them away.

Elegushi said some life guards plunged into the water and brought out six of the pupils.

“Out of the six that were rescued, some escaped by the time we got there. We were able to arrest two of them and we took them to the Jakande Police Station.

“As of now, there are still four missing as our seamen have not been able to bring them out of the water. We have informed their parents and they have come to the police station.

“Abass is one of the missing kids. There is another boy we have not identified with two other girls,” he added.

He said the arrested two boys told the police that they were chased from the beach before sneaking into the restricted section to swim.

He said, “They wrote in their statements that they were chased from the first section they went to. Abass told them that they should not worry and he would take them to another part of the beach. He took them to another end of the beach where no one could see them.”