• Restaurant staff trapped after allegedly being told to retrieve items
• Search, rescue ongoing, says LASEMA boss

It was a tale of sorrow and survival yesterday, as eyewitnesses recounted the harrowing moments when a three-storey building collapsed at No 10 Oremeta Street, Ojodu Berger, Lagos.

The building, which housed the popular ‘Equal Rights’ restaurant on its ground floor, came down on Saturday afternoon, leaving six persons dead and 20 others rescued alive from the rubble.

Franklin Monday Okede, one of the survivors, said the building had shown signs of structural failure long before the collapse. He described the tragic moment a footballer, who had come to the restaurant to buy food, lost his life.

“There was this footballer who came to buy food. Immediately he entered, one of the pillars fell on his head and he died with his ATM card still in his hand,” Okede told The Guardian, visibly shaken.

Okede, a regular at the restaurant, blamed negligence for the tragedy. “The building is over 40 years old. If they had fixed it, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s clear negligence from the building’s management. People were inside when it fell. A woman was rescued in the afternoon and I saw three vehicles crushed by the debris.” He added that a boy, believed to be between seven and nine years old, was pulled out alive from the wreckage.

Another survivor, Mr Koyum, narrated how he narrowly escaped. “I was outside before someone asked us to inspect a failing pillar. As we turned to step out, the building fell like a pack of cards. It was just God’s grace that saved us.”

According to Koyum, some restaurant workers had initially evacuated after warnings about the building’s state. However, they reportedly returned when told their absence might upset the owner. “The kitchen staff were the most affected because they returned inside. There were many casualties and recorded deaths,” he said.

It was alleged that the restaurant manager had instructed staff to retrieve some items from the premises before the collapse occurred. As of 12:00 p.m., yesterday, emergency officials confirmed 20 persons had been rescued and taken to Royan Hospital and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). Six bodies were deposited at the Yaba Medical Centre by the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit (SEHMU).

Thirteen persons were initially rescued on Saturday, with one body recovered. By yesterday, the death toll had risen to six. Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, confirmed that search and rescue efforts were still ongoing. He said the exact cause of the collapse was yet to be determined, but residents had long raised concerns about the building’s safety.

“It was an old building converted into an eatery. Additional construction had been carried out on it before it collapsed,” he said. LASEMA has since attributed the incident to unapproved structural modifications.

Chairman of the All Ojodu Communities Development Association, Alhaji Abdulganiu Sani, told The Guardian he had no prior knowledge of the building’s condition but blamed the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) for failing to carry out enforcement. “If LASBCA had done its job and marked the building for demolition, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Executive Chairman of the Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Mr Segun Odunmbaku, who visited the scene, sympathised with the victims and their families. He praised the swift response of emergency agencies and stressed the council’s commitment to the safety of residents.