A 29-year-old man named Francis drowned while swimming at the Pop Beach Club in Lagos State’s Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area.
The event occurred about 12 p.m. on Thursday, while the victim was having a birthday hangout with his buddies.
It was reported that the late Francis and three others left their colleagues during the party and went swimming in the sea.
According to an eyewitness, some of the lifeguards near the water raised the alarm after seeing the four of them straining to swim against the tide.
The eyewitness said, “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.”
Efforts by the lifeguards to rescue the deceased victim were unsuccessful as he was already too weak to swim.
“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.
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.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.
He said, “It happened. The body was recovered two days after the incident and the corpse has been deposited in the morgue.”