A yet-to-be-identified drainage worker got trapped while clearing the debris that blocked an underground tunnel in the Onipanu area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that the drainage worker, who was said to be employed by a company, Drain Ducks, which was reportedly contracted by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, entered the underground tunnel on Monday to clear the debris blocking the flow of water in the area when he suddenly got trapped and later went missing.
As efforts by his colleagues to establish contact with him proved abortive, an alarm was raised, and emergency responders, after getting a brief of the case, quickly stormed the incident scene to begin a rescue operation.
However, 24 hours after the commencement of the rescue operation, the whereabouts of the drainage worker had been unknown, fuelling the rumour that he might be dead.
A worker of one of the emergency responders at the incident scene, who spoke on the condition of anonymity over fear of losing his job, said the emergency response team had, at three different locations, searched 90 metres deep from the scene where the drainage worker cleared the debris but efforts to rescue him were to no avail.
The worker, however, noted that the victim’s chances of surviving the tragedy were slim, adding that it would take a miracle for him to be rescued alive.
The source said, “At this stage, his chances of survival are very slim and if he survives, it is God’s doing. The underground tunnel crossed the express road to the other side of Somolu, Yaba, and Oyingbo, among other areas. When he removed the blockade, the force of the wave might have swept him away.
“We got to the scene of the blockade and could not find him there. From the scene of the blockade, the rescue operatives have searched as far as 90 metres deep at three different locations and he has yet to be found. In the picture, you would see a man with a rope tied to him. He went into the drainage system in search of the worker.
“He spent close to 30 minutes before the rope was used to pull him out. He took time to rest, went in again and spent 40 minutes. The operation was suspended when it was getting dark and commenced around 7 a.m. today but we have not seen him or his corpse.”
A Professor of Public Health, University of Ilorin, Tanimola Akande, in his reaction to the tragedy, said the likelihood of survival was zero if the force of the water swept the drainage worker into a river or ocean.
“Another option is that the whole incident became so big that the soil gave way and he got buried inside it. If that is the case, he cannot survive 24 hours. But that chance is very low,” Akande added.
Also commenting on the tragic development, an engineer, Akintayo Akintola, while rating the chances of the victim’s survival as 50/50, said there were two layers of drainage tunnels in the state.
He, however, urged the rescue team to extend the operation to the second layer of the tunnel and expressed concerns about drainage workers’ lack of compliance with the standard safety measures in the state.