Victims under the rubbles of the collapsed 21-storey building at Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State are calling family members for rescue, TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) has learnt.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the calls by the victims under the rubble have generated agitations and protests from relatives and friends who gathered at the entrance of the gate requesting to be allowed to join in the operation.
It was gathered that a youth corps member, named Oridamola Zainab, is one of the victims trapped inside the rubbles calling her family members for rescue.
The Southwest Zonal Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, who was pacifying the agitators, pleaded with them to calm down, assuring that the rescue team would surely get to the ground zero, “but it will take time’’.
After a long protest, 10 young men who claimed to be relations of the victims were later selected to join the rescue team.
Meanwhile, Farinloye had said said no fewer than 15 dead bodies and nine injured persons have been recovered from the rubbles of the collapsed 21-storey building at Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos State.
TNG reports Farinloye confirmed this at the scene of the incident on Tuesday. The building under construction crumbled at about 3 p.m. on Monday, with about 50 workers feared trapped.
“So far, 15 dead bodies and nine injured persons have been dug out of the rubbles. When the Deputy Governor of Lagos State was here, we had about 10 dead bodies recovered and five more had been discovered as the operation continued,’’ he said.
The General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu told NAN that emergency responders worked all night long with flood-light in the rescue operation.
Oke-Osanyintolu said that about eight cranes were being used for rescue operations.
Meanwhile, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, who visited the scene sympathised with the victims’ families, describing the incident as unfortunate.
Baba said there was a need to strengthen the regulatory agencies in charge of such high-rise buildings.
He stressed that strict supervision by such agencies would avoid such incidents in future.
“Those in charge of the construction that compromised the standard of work should be prosecuted,’’ the IG-P said.
Our focus is to rescue as many people – Lagos State Government
As rescue operations continue at the location of yesterday’s collapsed building at Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, the Lagos State Government has restated its determination to ensure that as many people as possible are rescued alive from the rubble.
Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, disclosed this today while speaking with journalists and relatives of the victims during the monitoring of the ongoing search and rescue operations by agencies of government.
The Deputy Governor, who was accompanied to the site by top government officials, said the focus of government, for now, is to ensure that the ongoing rescue operations yield positive results such that those still trapped in the rubble are brought out alive.
He also stated that it will be difficult to ascertain the number of the trapped victims, noting that the building is still under construction and not yet occupied.
Stating that the project site was sealed up for four months by the relevant agency because of some anomalies in the construction process, the Deputy Governor gave further assurance that other adjourning buildings in the axis will be subjected to the Structural Integrity Test for appropriate action.
He emphasised that the State government would not relent in its efforts at ensuring that buildings under construction in Lagos are subjected to structural integrity tests to prevent issues of building collapse.
The Deputy Governor, who also led other top government officials to the Lagos General Hospital, Marina, where the survivors are being treated, promised that the State Government will take full responsibility for the treatment and medical bills of rescued victims of the Ikoyi building collapse.
