At least 34, construction site workers, including a woman and child, died while doctors are  battling to save the lives of 13 others who sustained severe injuries after being brought out of the rubble of a collapsed five-storey building under construction at Lekki Gardens in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State.

Scenes from the scene of the collapsed building at Kusenla road, Ikate, Elegushi, Lekki, Lagos,(File photo).

Lagos residents woke up to the sad news, on Tuesday, after a down pour.

According to reports,, the building caved in at about 4.am, trapping occupants, mainly construction workers.

The incident came on the heels of the collapse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, building of 2014, killing over 100 people, mostly South Africans.

98 percent of the victims in the Lekki incident, it was gathered, are also non-Nigerians. They are from Togo, Benin Republic and  northern part of Nigeria.

Though Lagos State government has come out to say saying  approval to construct only four-storey was issued to Lekki Worldwide Estate, owner of the collapsed building,

it was gathered that officials of Lagos State Building Control Agency, LABSCA, had earlier issued a “stop work” to the developer after discovering some lapses.

However, before the suspension of rescue operation,18 dead bodies had been removed from the debris on Tuesday, while,12 more bodies were evacuated  Wednesday afternoon. Four other bodies were recovered late in the evening of Wednesday, making a total of 34 deaths.

Spokesperson, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said apart from the 13 people rescued on Tuesday, no other person was removed alive from the rubble the next day.

General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Michael Akindele, corroborated Farinloye’s statement.

Survivor recounts

One of the survivors, who was brought out from the rubble around 6 pm, on Tuesday, Mr. Tunde Kusari, said he is an iron bender working at the site when it collapsed.

Kusari, who managed to speak with Sunday Vanguard before he was taken away for medical treatment, narrated: “I thank God for sparing my life. I was sleeping on the second floor of the building when it caved in on us. Most of us were waiting for our wages to be paid by the contractor.

“I cannot explain how I managed to survive. It was dark down there, we were just shouting `help, help’. But the voices kept going down as the clock ticked.  It’s a miracle I survived.  I really thank God”.

Residents and sympathizers blamed the high death toll on the inability of rescue workers to conduct a 24-hour-mission.

“If the rescue team had continued with the mission on the first day without suspending work, probably, more trapped victims could have been brought out alive. Rescue teams need to be more alive to their responsibilities. If this had happened in a more advanced clime, the casualties wouldn’t have been this much. We need to buckle up next time because disasters will always occur”, Mr. James Okeyson, a resident stated.

The search and rescue operations at the scene of the collapsed may have ended, but the activities of sympathisers, which caused the death of one rescued victim will continue to be a source of worry to the state Emergency Rescue Team, ERT.

The ERT consists of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, its Lagos State counterpart, LASEMA, Lagos State Fire Service, the Red Cross and the Nigeria Police.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that one of the rescued artisans would have survived but for the ignorant move of a sympathizer.

Sources said that seconds after the un-identified artisans was rescued, the victim demanded for water but ERT officials declined his demand.

Unfortunately, the sympathizer overheard the victim calling for water and, ignorantly, away from the knowledge of the emergency officials offered him water, which the rescued victim accepted.

Knowing the implication, it was learned that an ERT official, with the assistance of the policemen, chased all sympathisers around away and rushed the victim to the ambulance at the scene.

Sources said that few minutes after drinking the water, the rescue victim died. Efforts to revive him proved abortive.

Confirming the collapsed building incident, the LASEMA GM, Akindele, and NEMA South-West Coordinator, Mr. Yakubu Sulaimon, absolved the ERTof being responsible for the high death toll. He said the crowd at the scene was their greatest challenge in the search and rescue operations. “So it is not true that we were responsible for the high death toll”, they said.

“The greatest challenge we had was on the first day because 98 percent of the victims were not Nigerians. We have people from Togolese and Benin Republic”, Akindele said.

The General Manager added:  “Emotion carried over as if the sympathisers could do the job better (search and rescue operations) which they could not do.”

Sulaimon, on his own, said, “The crowd tried to deny our officials access into the building but the officers of the Nigeria Police were able to address the issue.

“We also experienced human traffic because at 7 am, residents were already at the scene trying to observe how the rescue officers were conducting their exercise”.

The incident has raised the issue of incessant building collapse without definitive step adopted to check the trend.

No doubt, Lagos has witnessed several incidents of building collapse with devastating effect. Apart from the Synagogue building collapse of 2014 the  which claimed over 100 lives, the Lekki collapse  ranked in terms of number of casualties recorded in the last two decades in the state.

Enforcement of town planning laws in Lagos has been at the lowest ebb, with developers flagrantly breaking the laws and going scot-free.

In many cases, the state government is believed to be playing the reactive role rather than being proactive and strictly enforcing the laws to the letter.

Records have shown that several thousands of buildings which are being developed in the metropolis are without approved plan  while developers often use substandard materials to erect buildings to maximize cost.

However, Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture, Mr. Abdul-lateef Abdul-hakeem, while making a clarification on the collapse, lamented that buildings are erected against the approval issued by the government.

“It is pathetic that the owner of the five-storey building under construction that collapsed on Tuesday in Lekki, which killed 34 persons working on the building, disregarded the state law.

“Only four floors were approved by government for construction. But the contractor went ahead to build six storeys. And they did this without the permission of government.

“This was further attested to by their foreman that he refused to go ahead because he knew that they had violated the law. These are people who have criminal minds.”