The news caused pandemonium among Lagosians who did not hesitate to share it with their friends on BlackBerry and other devices.
Also, many residents made frantic efforts to reach out to their loved ones in order to know their whereabouts.
The information was first broadcast on Twitter account of Federal Road Safety Corps, @FRSCNigeria.
The FRSC tweet simply warned, “A fully loaded BRT bus fell off the Third Mainland Bridge into the Lagos Lagoon. Rescue work in progress. Motorists be cautious.”
Expectedly, within a short period, the report went viral and circulated via text messages and social media networks.
On Twitter, Facebook, radio stations, news blogs, websites and other social media platforms, the rumours spread like wild fire, getting Lagosians worried over the safety of passengers inside the bus.
While the news of the accident was still being circulated on Twitter, Jon Gambrell, the Associated Press correspondent in Nigeria visited the scene and tweeted his findings, allaying people’s fears.
He tweeted, “An @AP team just twice travelled the length of Lagos Third Mainland Bridge. There is no crashed bus in the Lagos Lagoon.
“Confusion was so great that an FRSC official said he heard of it. Radio station, news website used it too.”
Relief, however, came when FRSC spokesman, Jonas Agwu, said the tweet about the BRT plunging into the lagoon was a hoax.
Agwu said, “The tweet has been deleted from the commission’s Twitter page and replaced with this: “Please disregard the information.”
“The Lagos State Government has also debunked the story saying it was a rumour. On Traffic FM, the state government’s dedicated traffic radio station, the news was also described as false.”
Officials of the state Traffic Management Agency and Lagos State Emergency Management Agency also refuted the purported story, denying knowledge of any such accident.
They said motorists and reactions from regular passersby of the bridge had also confirmed that there was free flow of traffic on the bridge and no evidence of an accident there.
Some Lagosians wondered what could have led to such dangerous rumours, asking whether the story actually emanated from the FRSC’s twitter in the first place or its account was hacked.
An online reader, who gave her name simply as Luvyln, thanked God the information was not true.
“When I read this on a blog, I almost cried. I thank God it is false,” she said.
There have been a lot of rumours on the bridge in the past. There was even a time it was rumoured that the bridge had collapsed but it later turned out to be a hoax.
Lagos Sector Commander, FRSC, Mr. Nseobong Akpabio, said the rumour was embarrassing.
He said as soon as the sector got the information, he asked his officers and men on the Island to find out if the report was correct.
“They told me that the information was not correct. The rumour was embarrassing,” Akpabio said.
However, there was an accident in Ebute Ero area of Lagos Island involving a LAGBUS and a green commercial bus. Six people were injured in the accident.
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