A 27-year-old woman, identified as Aisha Maikudi Ibrahim, has died after her vehicle reportedly somersaulted and plunged into the Lagos Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge.
Family sources confirmed that Mrs Ibrahim, who resided in Gbagada, was returning from an event in Ikoyi, where she worked as a vendor, when the accident occurred.
“She called her mother at about 1 a.m., assuring her she would be home in 20 minutes,” her aunt, Hadiza Oyewumi, told journalists in a telephone interview on Sunday. “By 2 a.m., her line was unreachable. By 4 a.m., her mother grew anxious, and by 6 a.m., she and Aisha’s elder sister set out in search of her.”
According to Mrs Oyewumi, the family came upon emergency officials and onlookers near the bridge. “We stopped and were told there had been an accident. The car’s bumper was visible, and when they checked the number plate, it was hers,” she explained.
The family suspects the car may have somersaulted due to speed, though the exact cause remains uncertain.
What compounded their grief, however, was the response of rescue agencies.
“Officials from LASTMA and the marine police kept making calls but made no attempt to go into the water,” Mrs Oyewumi said. “Her father eventually negotiated with local divers, who demanded N400,000 before they agreed to dive. Only after payment was her body recovered.”
Her remains were pulled out of the lagoon between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday, almost 12 hours after the crash, and buried immediately in line with Islamic rites.
In a statement released on Sunday, Mrs Oyewumi described her late niece as “a bright and ambitious entrepreneur” but condemned what she called the “commercialisation of human lives” in the failed rescue response.
“The tragedy of her death is painful enough, but the greater pain lies in the response that followed,” the statement read.
“Despite the presence of LASTMA and the marine police, no meaningful rescue was carried out. Local fishermen, instead, demanded money before acting. In our grief, the family paid, not as a bargain, but simply to retrieve her for burial.”
She called on the Lagos State Government to strengthen emergency response operations by equipping officials with the necessary tools and formally incorporating trained divers into the system.
“Structures must be put in place to ensure that human lives are never weighed against money in critical moments,” she said.
“Lagos cannot afford to commercialise life. Preparedness and compassion must define our response to emergencies.”
