Building Collapse Claims Baby, Couple, Four Others

Following the early morning collapse of yet another building at the Ebute Meta area of Lagos yesterday, the corpses of a toddler, a couple and four other residents of the ill fated three-storey building have so far been recovered while about seven residents were left with varying degrees of injuries.

Although as a press time, the actual figure of the deceased persons were yet to be ascertained, it was however gathered that the building located at no 29b Oloto Street, off Cemetery Road, Ebute Metta, had given the residents distress signs with cracks all over which were ignored.

Following the early morning collapse of yet another building at the Ebute Meta area of Lagos yesterday, the corpses of a toddler, a couple and four other residents of the ill fated three-storey building have so far been recovered while about seven residents were left with varying degrees of injuries.

But it was gathered that as at 1am when a loud sound which was accompanied by severe cracks on the wall occurred, the occupants were said to have evacuated some of their properties outside and were waiting for morning to dawn before moving out.

Initially, the death toll was estimated at about three but as rescue efforts continued, the toll rose to seven with speculations of more bodies being buried underneath the debris.

However, a joint rescue effort was carried out by officials of the Nigerian Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Red Cross, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and the state Fire Service.

Also, local rescue effort by youths of the area and sympathisers bolstered rescue operations as more people were rescued from the debris including two children; a male and female, aged 2 and 4 years respectively, who have since been rushed to the nearest hospital for treatment.

Confirming the incident, the Spokesperson, NEMA, South-west, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said the building collapsed at about 2am taking the residents unawares as they were still sleeping.

According to him,  preliminary information gotten from they victims that the the building started cracking at about 1am and had the residents move their properties out and went back to sleep only for the building to give out at about  2am.

He added that due to speculations that more persons might still be trapped under the rubbles, emergency workers are still combing the perimeter to ensure none is left behind.

According to reports however, one of the occupants of the building who was identified as Dalikis Abdulamid,  was also rescued alongside her mother and her four siblings who  were rushed to the hospital.

She admitted that they had been noticing cracks in the walls of their rooms, but didn't worry much over it because their father used to patch it up with cement as soon as it appeared.

She said, “We did not know that the building will collapse. By about 2am when the building came down, some of our co-tenants were trapped, while some were dead. It was a rude shock for everyone. "

Another resident of the building who simply gave his name as Femi,  said they were shocked out of their sleep when they heard a loud sound which turned out to be walls cracking.

He said, "It is not as if the broken walls were anything new to us. We had been living with it but we did not give it much thought because of the stress of looking for a new apartment.

"Forget the new tenancy law by the state government which stipulates one year rent, its only in paper. We all know that landlords refuse to collect just a year rent, so we had no choice but to ignore the cracks and live our lives.

"But this fateful morning, we were rudely jarred from sleep by this loud scary noise which turned out to be our walls. We could no longer avoid the inevitable so people decided to move out their stuff outside."

He added, "After we had done that, we had nowhere to crash that early in the morning and so we decided to sleep till morning and then find ways of relocating. Alas, the building couldn't wait till then. I was still trying to doze off when the walls started quaking. I quickly sprang up and jumped down.

"Some of my co-tenants were not that lucky. Some were killed while many others were injured and were rushed to the hospital. We can now be officially called homeless."