WASSCE: Students Celebrating Exam Completion Drown In Lagos Beach

Four teenagers drowned on Tuesday while swimming at the Elegushi Beach in the Lekki area of Lagos State.

Per reports, 10 secondary school leavers, aged between 14 and 15, went swimming at the beach in celebration of the completion of their West African Senior School Examination.

They were all pupils of the Kuramo Senior College, Lekki.

Speaking in a statement on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Elegushi Beach Management, Chief Ayuba Elegushi, disclosed that the pupils were not properly registered.

He added that the tragic incident happened at an unmanned section of the beach not open to the public.

“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.

“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 and two other girls", he said.

Elegushi further said that the two boys who were apprehended told the police that they were chased from the beach before sneaking into the restricted area to swim.

"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."

Confirming the incident, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, stated that an investigation was ongoing.

"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.”