The death
toll in Tuesday’s building collapse yesterday rose from two to eight.
The grim task of rescuing the trapped
took the better of the day before the operation was called off last night.
An eight-year old surviour, Wuraola
Afolayan, said she saw a ray of light and pulled her younger brother towards it
before they were rescued.
The kids were among 15 others rescued
from the building which caved in at Massey/Karena Street.
The six more bodies were recovered
between 1am and noon by Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) with
the help of floodlight. The rescuers worked despite the hostilities of some
miscreants.
Afolayan, who was brought to the scene
when Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in charge of Operations, Imohimi Edgal
arrived, said they were sent by their parents to buy beans.
She said: “Our mother sent us to buy
beans. When we got there, the building just fell. We were in a dark place when
I saw light and so, I pulled my brother and we followed the light. That was how
we were seen and rescued.”
Eleven-year-old Hassan Ajetunmobi was
also rescued from the debris around 3:30am. He was injured on his right leg and
left hand.
Awolowo Toyin, Amoo Zainab, Kofo Rotimi,
Adau Akeem, Ufodike Innocent, Adebayo Olugbemi, Leonard Bernard, Adawo Adidat,
Rahmon Rasa, Amoo Sherifat, Ajetunmobi Oyindamola, Amidu Lamou and Qudus
Ojoye were rescued on Tuesday and rushed to Lagos Island General Hospital.
The bodies of Lawal Mabolaje, 15 and
Ibrahim Bello, 26, which were among those recovered from the rubble, have been
collected by the relatives.
The miscreants went wild around 2am,
when Bello’s body was found.
When LASEMA and Nigerian Red Cross (NRC)
officials took the body bag to a waiting van, the thugs demanded to see it and
their wish was granted.
Rather than allow the family to take the
body away, they attacked the officials who carried the body bag, threatening to
kill them.
Two of them lifted their clothes up and
showed the officials guns. They accused the rescuers of killing Bello.
Explanations by the LASEMA crew that the
victim was brought out from under a beam fell on the hoodlums’ deaf ears. They
assaulted a Red Cross official.
To ensure peace, LASEMA General Manager
Adesina Tiamiyu ordered the emergency workers to withdraw from the site for the
miscreants.
Following their withdrawal, relatives of
those still trapped went after the hoodlums and also invited the police to
chase them away.
The hoodlums eventually gave way for the
rescuers to continue their work and Ajetunmobi was rescued.
It was gathered that residents last week
prevented the firm that mounted a mast near the building from installing an
industrial standby generator on the penthouse.
The government has begun investigation
to ascertain who approved the installation of the mast on the structure.
It was gathered that a
telecommunication’s firm paid a relative of the building owner for the mast.
The relative has since moved abroad.
Tiamiyu said the mast might have
contributed to the building collapse, adding that investigation would determine
the cause.
He said the building and others around
it would hardly pass integrity test, appealing to the residents to consider
their safety first.
According to him, 15 persons were
rescued. He put the casualty figure at eight.
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