More people have been confirmed killed and more survivors rescued hours after a high-rise building collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
The incident occurred on Monday afternoon along Wesley Road in the commercial hub of the nation.
While four persons were killed and five others rescued as of Monday night, the death toll and number of survivors rose on Tuesday as rescue efforts continued through the night.
According to the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), 16 more bodies have been recovered.
He added that five more persons trapped under the rubble have been rescued by emergency responders at the scene.
This brings the total figures of those killed and rescued so far to 20 and 10 respectively.
The Deputy Governor of Lagos, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, who visited the site amid tight security, explained that the premise of the collapsed building has been sealed by the government agency in charge of testing, for more investigation into the integrity of the structure.
Emergency workers have intensified rescue operations as more people are believed to be trapped under the rubble.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Lagos State Chapter, David Majekodunmi, also visited the site of the building collapse.
He lamented that unfortunate incidents such as this should not have happened if authorities had done what was expected of them.
“My first impression is that the country is in a mess. We are in a mess because if we have done what we are supposed to do, either on the private or government side, we wouldn’t be having this kind of incident.
“Like it’s said by (Femi) Falana, the renowned lawyer, about six or seven weeks precisely where we have all the allied professionals in the construction industry together, he said ‘we should stop talking about building collapse; go and search yourselves, what is your regulatory building doing? Your regulatory body is supposed to regulate things like this,” said Majekodunmi.
He added, “Looking at this, you can’t determine what is actually the cause of the collapse. In a nutshell, we are standing in front of the signage which is supposed to be a prerequisite at a site.
“You cannot see the name of the architect, the structural engineer, and other consultants. But there is so much going on on the platform where the number written on all these consultants happens to be the developer.
“I will tell you just a little history because the government has a big fault for this. In 1986, a National Building Code was drafted by all the professional bodies in the construction industry – seven of them. This National Building Code was not signed until 20 years after it was drafted.”
Meanwhile, at the site, agitated family members of some of the victims protested against what they described as the slow pace of work at the scene.
The aggrieved families and sympathisers urged emergency management workers to allow members of the public to help in the recovery process to increase the chances of saving more lives.
They claimed that they were not allowed to identify the bodies recovered to know if their loved ones had been found or were still trapped in the rubble.
