A 27-year-old woman, Aisha Maikudi Ibrahim, died on Saturday after her car reportedly somersaulted and fell into the Lagos Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge.
Family sources told PREMIUM TIMES that Ms Ibrahim, who lived in Gbagada, was returning from an event in Ikoyi where she worked as a vendor when the crash occurred.
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“She called her mother around 1 a.m. to say she would be home in 20 minutes,” her aunt, Hadiza Oyewumi, said in a telephone interview on Sunday.
“By 2 a.m., her phone was unreachable. By 4 a.m., her mother became worried, and by 6 a.m., her elder sister and mother set out to look for her.”
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Ms Oyewumi explained that on their way to the Island, the family saw emergency officials and bystanders gathered near the bridge.
“When we stopped, we were told there had been an accident. The car’s bumper was visible, and when they checked the plate number, it matched hers,” Ms Oyewumi said.
The family believes the vehicle may have somersaulted at high speed, though the exact circumstances remain unclear.
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What they found more painful, however, was the rescue response.
“Officials from LASTMA and the marine police kept saying they were making calls, but no one went into the lagoon,” Ms Oyewumi recounted.
“It was her father who eventually negotiated with local divers. They demanded N400,000 before diving in. Only after the payment did they retrieve her body.”
Her body was recovered between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday — nearly half a day after the accident — and buried immediately according to Islamic rites.
In a separate statement on Sunday, Ms Oyewumi described her late niece as “a promising entrepreneur with high aspirations”. Still, she lamented what she called the “commercialisation of human lives” in the failed rescue effort.
“The circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but what is more painful is the response that followed,” the statement read.
“LASTMA and marine police were at the scene, but there was no meaningful rescue. It fell to local fishermen, who demanded money before acting. In their grief, the family paid — not to bargain, but to recover her body for a proper burial.”
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She urged the Lagos State Government to properly equip emergency responders and formally integrate trained divers into rescue operations.
“Can a structure be created so that, in moments like this, money is not placed above humanity?” she asked. “The Centre of Excellence must not commercialise human lives. Preparedness and compassion can make all the difference.”
LASTMA reacts
When contacted on Sunday evening, the Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment at the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Taofeek Adebayo, said he was unaware of the incident but promised to investigate.
However, the Director of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye, confirmed that Ms Ibrahim’s body was recovered lifeless from the lagoon during a rescue operation.
She explained that the body was subsequently handed over to the Nigeria Police and the victim’s family.
“It was a single accident involving a Toyota Camry with registration number LSR 384 BE, which plunged into the lagoon with the driver as the lone occupant,” Ms Adeseye said.
Similar incident
Saturday’s crash was not the first time passengers have plunged into the Lagos Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge.
In April 2024, an 18-seater bus swerved off the bridge at the Adeniyi Adele axis, inward Lagos Island, and hit the railings, according to Ibrahim Farinloye, Lagos Territorial Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
The impact flung two passengers — a man and a woman — into the lagoon, while several others sustained injuries.
Mr Farinloye said marine police launched a search for the missing victims, while the injured were evacuated to a nearby hospital.
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