Sadly, two sisters in their late 20s have been confirmed dead after a two storey building collapsed in Lagos today.
The building situated at Block M20,
Jakande Estate, Church Street, Oke-Afa, Isolo, Lagos collapsed at about
12 midnight killing the girls and leaving their mother with serious
injuries.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that
the corpses of the girls, Toyin and Bukola Coker were taken away at 6.15
a.m today by some officials of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS). An official of the National Emergency Management Agency, also confirmed that there are no more bodies under the building’s rubble.
The building along with others within the vicinity were erected 30 years ago and were noticed to have severe cracks.
A man living in the neighbourhood, Mr
Opeyemi Fagun told NAN that they noticed that the building had been
sinking gradually for about a year. He said that the occupants had been
warned to evacuate the building over a year ago when the walls started
cracking.
According to him, occupants of one of the floors in the building had packed out early this year while the others remained.
“The building was already sinking,
shaking with cracked walls and they have been warned to pack out. When
we heard a huge bang and a cloud of dust, we ran out and heard screaming
from inside the rubbles; so, we went to dig the people out with our
bare hands. But our efforts were futile as the girls were already dead,” he said.
Another neighbour, Kidochi Okonye, said
that when they came out at about 12. 30 a.m. and saw what happened, they
called the National Emergency Management Agency, the fire service and
the Red Cross, but none of them came. He said that Red Cross officials
eventually came by 6 a.m. when the dead sisters had been pulled out and
they carried the corpses away.
One of the occupants of the first floor
of the collapsed building, who refused to disclose her name, said that
they came in by 9 p.m. on Tuesday and saw that their decking had cracked
badly.
“My brother went upstairs to warn
the Cokers but they did not take heed to the warning and we decided not
to sleep in that building. We were seated outside when we heard a bang
and started screaming for help. It was so fast that I can’t describe it;
I wish I could have helped them, but I just could not,” she said.
Meanwhile, officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency visited
the area of the collapsed building this morning and marked eight other
structures for demolition. The agency also ordered all occupants of
structures near the collapsed building at the Jakande Estate, Isolo in
Lagos State to vacate their premises within 48 hours.
Most buildings within the vicinity have structural weaknesses and signs of imminent collapse.
The sad death of these ladies should
serve as a warning to other residents living in buildings already having
large cracks and showing signs of structural weakness. We know that
with the country’s harsh economic conditions, the task of
changing accommodation gets tough, but it is better to be safe than
sorry. We pray their souls Rest In Peace.
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