News: Collapsed Building in Lagos Kills Baby, Six Others.

For residents of 29b, Oloto Street, off Cemetery Road, Ebute Metta, Lagos, Thursday’s early morning downpour turned out for them a harbinger of tragedy. The plot of land where their home stood is now littered with rubble after the building collapsed at about 1am. The rain was believed to have hastened the collapse of the building that had for a while showed signs of distress.

When rescued operations began at the break of dawn, seven persons, including a baby have been confirmed killed.


Seven others were left with varying degrees of injuries while an unspecified number of other residents were still trapped in the rubble.

Similarly, a yet-to-be-determined number of people were trapped Thursday as rescue efforts got underway after a three-storey building, believed to have been constructed over 50 years ago, collapsed in Kaduna metropolis, trapping all the tenants that were inside the building, which served residential and commercial purposes.

THISDAY gathered that the Lagos building had all along shown signs of distress but the residents were said to have ignored them.

But when the rain began, the residents were forced to move out of the building after they heard a loud sound, which was accompanied by severe cracks on the wall.

They evacuated some of their property and were waiting for the day to break before moving out when the building finally collapsed.

The rescue efforts were carried out by officials of the police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Red Cross, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) and the state fire service.

Confirming the incident, NEMA spokesperson, South-west, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said the building collapsed at about 2am taking the residents unawares as some of them were still sleeping when the incident happened.

He added that due to speculations that more persons might still be trapped under the rubble, emergency workers were combing the perimeter to save lives.

According to reports however, one of the occupants of the building, who was identified as Dalikis Abdulamid, was rescued alongside her mother and her four siblings and were rushed to the hospital.

She said they had noticed cracks in the walls of their rooms, but they did not worry much over it because their father used to patch it up with cement as soon as it appeared.

She said: “We did not know that the building will collapse. By about 2am when the building came down, some of our co-tenants were trapped, while some were dead. It was a rude shock for everyone.”

It was another tragedy in Kaduna where another building collapsed Thursday, trapping many of the occupants.
Rescue operations were still going on as at press time.

It was learnt that the first and second floors of the building, located on Hadeija Road, were used for residential purposes, while the ground floor was used as a shop.

The Coordinator of the Nigeria Red Cross Society, Kaduna State branch, Mr. B. J Charles, said rescue agencies were handicapped as there was no bulldozer and other equipment to remove the rubble of the collapsed building.

The state Governor, Alhaji  Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, and his deputy, Mr. Nuhu Audu Bajoga, who cut short state functions to visit the scene, were also seen making frantic efforts to mobilise equipment to the scene.