ONE of the 14 occupants trapped in the collapsed two-storey building along Obafemi Awolowo Road, Ota-Ona, in the Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State has been confirmed dead.
The building, which caved in on Tuesday, initially left 14 people trapped. As of the time of filing this report, 10 had been rescued, while three others remain unaccounted for.
In an update to this newspaper, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency confirmed that one of the four initially unaccounted-for occupants had been recovered dead from the rubble.
While the cause of the collapse remains unclear, the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service confirmed that 14 people were inside the building before it collapsed.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Director of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye, through the agency’s spokesperson, Amodu Shakiru, disclosed that rescue efforts were ongoing.
The statement read, “It’s a rescue involving the collapse of an uncompleted two-storey building located at the back of a bungalow, consisting of two rooms and a parlour, all built on a land space of about 648 square metres.”
It added, “A total number of 14 people were in the building. Ten adult males, aged between 28 and 35, were rescued and taken to an undisclosed hospital for treatment. As of this report, rescue and search operations are still ongoing for the remaining persons.”
The statement also listed the agencies involved in the rescue mission. These include a team of the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps, Ikorodu Command, led by SNCO Ogidiolu Dare; Lagos State Building Control Agency, Ikorodu Central; Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, from Alausa, led by Seriki; Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ikorodu Division, led by ASC I Abimbola Aderibigbe; Nigeria Police Force, Ikorodu Divisional Headquarters, led by DPO Akiola Clement and the Federal Road Safety Corps, Ikorodu Unit Command, led by ARC A. Adetona.
Earlier, this newspaper reported that a Facebook user, Rasheed Fatuga, posted about the incident, stating that the building was located directly opposite the Mobil Filling Station (formerly Bugon Filling Station) in the Ota-Ona area.
This latest incident comes just a month after a similar tragedy in April, when a three-storey building collapsed in the Ojodu Berger area of Lagos, claiming five lives.
The structure, which housed a popular restaurant, was reportedly undergoing construction at the time it came crashing down in the early hours of the morning, trapping several occupants and passersby.
