Responders recover five bodies, rescue five others in Lagos building collapse

It was a tragic end for five construction workers yesterday, while five others were rescued alive with injuries following the collapse of a two-storey building at 13 Wilson Mba, Arowojobe Estate, Maryland, Lagos State.

The Guardian learnt that the building, which was under construction, came down at about 3:00 a.m.

The workers said to have come from Ibadan, Oyo State, were sleeping on site when the building collapsed.

The building, with Lagos State Government approval number LSC/CON/D/0972, was close to a canal.

Head of Search and Rescue Unit, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos territorial office, Adenike Ibitayo, who spoke with The Guardian on site, said the construction workers were buried under the rubble.

She said: “We have brought out five people dead and five alive; they have been taken to the hospital where they are receiving treatment.

“The building was under construction before it came down, and site workers were trapped under the rubble.”

Ibitayo advised Nigerians to stop building in areas prone to flooding and avoid using substandard building materials.

“We discovered that people used poor quality building materials in most of the collapses we have witnessed. Nigerians need to do due diligence when getting an apartment.

“Don’t move into a house with cracks because it’s a sign of a building about to collapse. Move out to save your life,” she added.

On his part, the Director of Operation, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Olatunde Akinsanya, said the agency got a distress call at about 3:40 a.m.

“We activated the Lagos State Emergency’s response plan immediately after we got the call. We moved swiftly into action and recovered five victims who were labourers working and sleeping in the building before it collapsed. All the recovered bodies were male.

“Out of the five rescued alive, three were taken to Gbagada General Hospital and the remaining two to the trauma centre.”

Speaking on the swampy nature of the area and the level of monitoring, he said: “Lagos State plans to mitigate building collapse by engaging engineers and other professional bodies to monitor houses with signs of defects so that LASBCA can take care of them.”

Meanwhile, The Guardian learnt that the male victims who were recovered dead have been handed over to the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU).