A 27-year-old woman, Aisha Maikudi Ibrahim, tragically lost her life after her vehicle reportedly somersaulted and plunged into the Lagos Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge.
Family sources said the young entrepreneur, who lived in Gbagada, was returning from an event in Ikoyi, where she worked as a vendor, when the accident occurred in the early hours of Saturday.
“She called her mother around 1 a.m., assuring her she would be home within 20 minutes,” her aunt, Hadiza Oyewumi, told journalists in a telephone interview on Sunday. “By 2 a.m., her line had gone off. By 4 a.m., her mother became worried, and by 6 a.m., she and Aisha’s elder sister went out to search for her.”
According to Mrs. Oyewumi, the search ended at the Third Mainland Bridge, where emergency responders and onlookers had gathered. “We were told a vehicle had somersaulted into the lagoon. The car’s bumper was visible, and when they checked the number plate, it was hers,” she explained.
The family suspects speeding may have caused the crash, though the exact circumstances remain unclear.
What worsened their grief, Mrs. Oyewumi said, was the response of emergency agencies at the scene.
“Officials from LASTMA and the marine police kept making calls but did not attempt to go into the water,” she recounted. “Her father eventually negotiated with local divers, who demanded N400,000 before agreeing to dive. Only after payment was her body recovered.”
Her remains were pulled from the lagoon between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday—nearly 12 hours after the accident—and buried immediately in accordance with Islamic rites.
In a statement, Mrs. Oyewumi described her niece as “a bright and ambitious entrepreneur,” while condemning what she termed the “commercialisation of human lives” during the failed rescue attempt.
“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 marine police, no meaningful rescue effort was made. 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 urged the Lagos State Government to strengthen emergency response systems by equipping officials with adequate tools and formally integrating trained divers into operations.
“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.”
