By Oluwatosin Maliki
In a heartbreaking incident, a 29-year-old man identified as Francis, who reportedly went out to catch fun at the Pop Beach Club in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, drowned while swimming.
Quest Times gathered that the sad incident happened on Thursday at about 12pm while the victim was holding a birthday hangout with his friends.
The incident unfolded when the late Francis and three others were said to have left their colleagues as the celebration was going on and went to the sea to swim.
An eyewitness told newsmen on Sunday that some of the lifeguards close to the sea immediately raised an alarm after they had sighted the four of them struggling to swim against the tide.
The source explained, “The celebrant came with 11 friends including the victim around 12 pm. They were having fun when about four of them went to swim in the beach. After spending about 30 minutes swimming, we could no longer see them again. The next moment we saw them, they were already struggling in the water. That was when we alerted the lifeguards who went into the sea to rescue them. They were only able to rescue three of them.”
However, all efforts by the lifeguards to rescue the deceased victim was unsuccessful as he was already too weak to swim back to shore.
“After they searched for the remaining one and could not find him, the management went to the police station to report the incident. By the time a team of police arrived, the management had also gone to hire local divers who came to begin another round of search for the missing person. The search lasted till the evening but he was not found,” the eyewitness added.
It was also learned that the remains of the deceased were later found on Saturday.
A police source in the community said, “His body was washed to the shore of the sea on Saturday morning. And immediately people saw it, they alerted the management.”
Benjamin Hundeyin, the state Police Public Relations Officer, also confirmed the incident.
The PPRO stated, “It happened. The body was recovered two days after the incident and the corpse has been deposited in the morgue.”