No fewer than 20 people have been confirmed dead in the 21-storey building that collapsed on Monday on Gerrard Road, in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.The building crumbled around 2pm when workers were on the site.
As at yesterday, 10 people have been confirmed dead and many others were still trapped in the rubble, including the Managing Director, Fourscore Heights Limited, Mr Femi Osibona, who owned the building.
The South-West Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, on Tuesday, said a total of 20 bodies, including that of Osibona’s personal assistant, had been recovered.
The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, around 8pm on Tuesday, also confirmed that 20 corpses had been recovered. Nine people were said to have been rescued alive.
Three of the rescued victims had been released to their families, while others were being treated at the Lagos Island General Hospital, Marina.
However, 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.