Four surveyors who drowned in Ekiti river not World Bank officials – Agency says

There were reports online yesterday that the four surveyors that died in the boat mishap at the Egbe River in Ekiti state on Wednesday August 24th (read here), were World bank staff. The Third National Urban Water Sector Reform agency whose project the deceased persons were working on, this morning released a statement making the clarification that the deceased persons namely Alaran Tirimisiyu, Abdulwaheed Alayande, David Malu and Albert, were not staff members of the World bank. Read the statement below...

“The Unfortunate drowning of four workmen working as topo-surveyors on Egbe Dam is highly regretted and unfortunate and a loss too many. The Third National Urban Water Sector Reform Project is a project funded by the World Bank with a target to achieve maximum reform in Ekiti State water sector. While we lament the sad loss, we wish to state that the Consultant was awarded the assignment to carry out Bathymetry Survey of four dams in the state biz: Ureje, Egbe, Itapaji and Ero. The sad incident happened because some safety measures were not adhered to by the deceased: refusal to wear life jackets and those who survived wore life jackets provided by the company. It should be noted that neither World Bank official nor Water Corporation staff member was involved. Ekiti State Government commiserates with the families of the departed and pray God to grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.”