The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola has recruited the services of 15 anti-terrorist guards to man the state’s waterways in order to ensure safety.

The governor had also provided two patrol boats, one fire boat, one search and rescue boat and employed men to monitor safety compliance on Lagos jetties.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Opeyemi Bamidele, who disclosed this at the weekend, said government was providing the infrastructure and security to promote more investment opportunities in the waterways in order to complement road transportation.

Bamidele added that the state was committed to ensuring safety in the state’s waterways, saying that the security provided was to prevent pirate from attacking passengers.

He added that the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) had met with the relevant stakeholders in water transportation in the state with a view to ensuring safety, pointing out that the agency had made the wearing of life jackets compulsory for passengers of ferries and local boats.

The Commissioner said LASWA had equally extended its advocacy visits to numerous riverine areas in the state to enlist the support of local boat operators, fishermen and traders on the need to maintain safety on Lagos waterways.

He disclosed that Fashola had directed LASWA to recruit water guards to enforce the use of life jackets by ferry and boat operators and that the agency in turn had placed sufficient personnel in every jetty in Lagos to disallow people without life jackets from using the state’s waterways.

Bamidele said the state was prepared to license more big ferry operators in order to give people better choice on the 21 navigational routes in the state and to technically phase out local boats.

He stressed that water transportation remained the safest if the phobia associated with water was removed, disclosing that more good ferries were coming into the state to enhance water transportation, adding that the focus of the state government was to bring in big investors, particularly in the manufacturing and running of big ferries.

Bamidele said that the governor had directed that a standard be maintained by the LASWA on the construction of jetties in the state.