It is no longer news that a 21-storey building collapsed at Wesley Road in the Ikoyi area of Lagos on Monday. However, Eyewitnesses say the building caved in around 2 pm, leaving many of the construction workers trapped in the rubble.
Rescue Operation
The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, in the company of other State officials, got to the scene shortly after and called for an immediate investigation to ascertain the remote and immediate cause of the collapse.
He also directed that the location be cordoned off to facilitate rescue in an effort to prevent onlookers from moving within close proximity of the site.
But it was not until about 4:30pm (on Monday) that military personnel were mobilised to the site for crowd control.
Rescue operation then began in earnest, with the crowd under effective control.
The area was cordoned off and journalists, family, friends, and sympathisers were restricted from the collapsed building.
At about 5pm, excavators moved in to the site with state officials and the National Emergency Management Agency swinging into action.
Five Survivors
As part of investigations, the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, Arch. Gbolahan Oki, was also at the scene to conduct an on-the-spot assessment of any likely damage to the surrounding structures within the vicinity.
Emergency management agencies deployed more earthmoving equipment in an effort to intensify rescue operations.
The spokesperson for NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said five persons have been rescued and four bodies recovered, as of Monday evening.
He added that officials were being more careful, especially as they could hear and see one or two persons still trapped under the building.
Trapped Workers
Eyewitnesses said there were more than 50 construction workers, including the owner of the building on the site when the building caved in.
As the rescue operation progressed, relatives and friends of those suspected to be trapped in the building said they were getting calls and text messages from some of the victims who were hoping to be rescued.
At about 11:20 pm, it started raining heavily but that did not stop emergency operations at the site.
When the rain subsided, at about 12 am, one of those trapped was rescued.
Emergency management officials said they were confident of rescuing more people as they worked into the night.
The collapsed building is sited in Ikoyi, an upscale part of Lagos where mass residential buildings are springing up in form of skyscrapers.
Nigeria recorded 43 building collapse cases in 2019, according to the Building Collapse Prevention Guild.
Lagos had the highest figure with 17 cases, accounting for about 39.53 per cent of the total number of collapsed buildings in the country.
In a related incident, a building collapsed in the Ikorodu area of Lagos on October 19, 2021, killing one, and injuring several others.
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