HUNDREDS of fun seekers, on Tuesday, besieged the Kuramo Beach on Victoria Island, Lagos, to celebrate Eid-el-Fitri, in spite of the recent deadly surge of the Atlantic Ocean, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had reported. NAN recalls that no fewer than 16 persons were reported missing at the resort on August 18, as the ocean overflowed its bank, washing away businesses and settlements at the beach.

As of Tuesday, five bodies of the missing persons had been recovered from the ocean.

The surge started on August 17, turning violent the following day while the tide has remained high since then.

Fun seekers, including families, young men and women, were seen at the beach, in spite of a red flag hoisted at the resort to indicate danger.

The picnickers, however, lamented the absence of economic activities at the beach.

Mr Biodun Braimoh, a trader, said that he brought his children to the beach to have fun as the holidays were the only free time he had to do so.

The trader said disasters happen in the country daily and that the one at the beach would not prevent people from enjoying themselves.

“It was witnessed a few days ago and it has gone by. So we the living will still go on until God calls us,'' Braimoh said.

Another fun seeker, Mr Abdulfatai Raheem, said he was at the beach to unwind with members of his family during the Eid-el-Fitri holiday.

“My children have been disturbing me about going to the beach and I promised them that I will take them there. That is why we are here.

“It was when I got here that people started telling me of what happened. But I won’t allow my children to swim even though they can,'' Raheem said.

Miss Mulikat Bolaji, 24, of the University of Lagos, said she was at the beach to have fun.

“For those that are dead, may they rest in peace but I am here to have fun. We are on holidays so I am making use of every bit of it to enjoy myself,'' she said.

Meanwhile, an official of Epe Local Government Council in Lagos State said, on Tuesday, that work on the Epe Marina Shoreline Reclamation Project would start in September.

Mr Abiodun Ajero, Special Adviser on Market Development and Revenue Generation to the Epe Local Government Council chairman, disclosed this to the NAN in Epe.

He explained that the project would be carried out in collaboration with the state government.

According to him, affected residents and businesses along the shoreline had started relocating, to pave the way for the movement of reclamation equipment and personnel to the project site.

He said that the exercise would stretch from the Erepoto area to Oluwo market on the Marina at Epe.

The special adviser said that the council had provided an area popularly called “Chief’’ for the displaced sand dredgers and other traders to continue their small scale businesses.

He said that the council was, however, still searching for an alternative location to resettle other affected residents and places of worship.

Ajero said that the state government and the council were carrying out the project to enable them to effectively harness the economic and tourism potentials of Epe.

He said that the focus was on the development of tourism and economic infrastructure in Epe, to boost business and leverage sustainable development in the area.

Describing the Epe Marina waterside as a tourist haven, Ajero said the area’s historical antecedents, dating back to when Oba Kosoko of Lagos berthed at Epe in 1851, made the area a legacy asset which should be appropriately transformed.

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