A three-storey building collapsed on Oloto Street, Ebute Meta, Lagos on Thursday morning, leaving no fewer than seven people dead, while seven others were critically injured.

Among the dead were a one-year-old baby and the mother, a pregnant woman and her husband. An unspecified number of occupants of the house were still trapped in the rubble.

The baby was found dead on the chest of the mother. The husband and the rest of their children, however, survived.

Eyewitnesses told our correspondents that the building came down around 2am while residents were still sleeping.

One of them, Dr. Femi Adagunduro, said immediately the building collapsed, he made a call to the state emergency lines.

He added that there was no response until 7am, when rescue officials started arriving at the scene.

He said, "Perhaps the causalty figure would not have been high if the rescue officials had responded on time. I called them about seven different times, and they kept telling me they were coming."

He explained that many people in the area had noticed the poor state of the building, adding that nothing was done about it.

It was gathered that the building was owned by one Alhaji Yaqub Oladimeji.

A survivor, Mr. Ayodeji Adebayo, explained that the building had shown signs of weakness before it collapsed.

He said, "I was lucky to come out safely with my family. The incident happened within just five minutes.

"One of our neighbours heard a sound as the building was collapsing and raised the alarm. Some of us were thus able to rush out and escaped being trapped.

Another survivor, Mr. Ufuoma Ejiro, said, "I was about to sleep when I heard some sound like that of a breaking wall. I investigated and noticed that it was the wall of our building that was collapsing. I shouted to alert people and within five minutes the whole building had collapsed."

A former tenant of the collapsed building, Mr. Akin Gbaja, said government officials had marked the house on several occasions for demolition but the landlord always managed to stop it."

 

Response of rescue agencies

The General Manager of Lagos state Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, said, "Immediately we heard, we activated our emergency response plan. So far, we have been able to save 10 lives, and we recovered three bodies."

The spokesperson for the National Emergency Management Agency, South West, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said a total of seven people died, while another seven were rescued.

He said, "A total of 14 people were trapped in the building. We brought out seven alive, although they were critically injured and had to be taken to the hospital. But unfortunately, seven other people died."

The Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed, said workers from the state's ministry of works were already moving round the area to mark houses that were not safe for habitation.

Drama as RRS arrests NEMA spokesman

There was drama at the scene of the incident as policemen attached to the Rapid Response Squad arrested NEMA spokesman, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye.

On getting to the scene of the incident at 11.50am, Commander of the RRS, Mr. Akeem Odumosu, instructed non-rescue officials to leave the scene.

Odumosu later instructed journalists to also leave the ground.

However, Farinloye disagreed with Odumosu for sending journalists away. Odumosu, who was noticeably angry, ordered the arrest of Farinloye.

Though Farinloye resisted, he was bundled by the policemen to their van.

While being dragged to the police van, Farinloye could be heard shouting, "This is not right, I will make sure I write a petition against you."

Our correspondent learnt that Odumosu ordered that Farinloye should be detained at the Denton Police Station and arraigned in court on Monday.

At 2.30pm when our correspondent left the scene, Farinloye had not been released despite efforts made by the Mainland Local Government Chairman, Oladele Adekanye, to get him released.

Odumosu was heard saying, "Since he threatened to write a petition, let him write. He cannot send me away from here, I have sent him away."

When our correspondent left the scene of the incident, rescue teams were still searching for others that were trapped.