Families of victims of Portharcourt building collapse cry out-Efforts filled with Hypocrisy

The Families of the victims trapped in the collapsed building in Portharcout have cried out over the incompetence and hypocrisy surrounding the rescue mission.

In a post by Dr Chinazor Ihionu,she raised the concern of wrong information being fed to the public as against the lackadaisical attitude of those conducting the rescue operations.

The post stated below, she stated that as at 9am on the 26th of November, rescue was yet to commence

Please know that government officials “on ground” at the above mentioned site are intentionally feeding the public wrong information to mask their incompetence.

My cousin IHIONU EKENE MORGAN is still trapped in this building. My family (as most families of the victims) has been at the site since Friday evening. No serious effort has been made to rescue the victims. The first four victims were evacuated via mob actions, manually using sledge hammers on Saturday. Out of these four victims, one person came out unscathed, one dead, two unconscious (one eventually died en route the hospital) and by Saturday evening, two more were retrieved dead.

The figures being claimed by the officials as rescued, though highly exagerated, were passersby injured by schrapnels when the building collapsed at about 4.35pm on Friday 23rd Nov. 2018. Other than these six victims, no other person has been retrieved dead or alive.

From the account of the uninjured man rescued on saturday, there are over 200 people trapped in this site. It is understood that the contractor slated Fridays only, as the payment day to workers, engineers and suppliers, hence the crowd on this faithful day.

The only equipment on ground are five Excavators and one 60 tonne Crane. The crane is too small to lift these boulders while the excavators are the wrong equipment for cutting them to smaller sizes. Please see attached pictures for the size of the boulders and equipment on ground.

No jack hammers or any earth moving equipment which is what is required to cut and lift the boulders and rescue the victims, rather the excavator buckets are being used to break the decks.

There has been no sense of urgency or coordination in the rescue operations. The body language of the rescue team seem to be of hope lost. We have overheard them say that there could be no more survivors, but we believe this is hasty as it is too early to draw such a conclusion.

They have informed us that Julius Berger is incharge of the rescue operations yet the only Julius Berger branded equipment on site are ambulances and Hilux vans. No Diggers, Cutters, Cranes or any requisite equipment/motors belonging to them is here. The Excavators seem to belong to MCC.

To make matters worse, the excavators downed tools on sunday morning claiming non payment by god knows who, only to start operations the moment Governor Wike’s convoy was heard approaching and of course stopped immediately the governor left. Unfortunately, the police created a barricade, thus preventing us from accessing the governor to inform him of the hypocrisy of the entire rescue operations.

We had hoped the government would engage TREVI as they are renowned experts in operations of this nature and own equipment that can lift out these heavy boulders within 6 hours. More so as they have an operations base in Port Harcourt ! There are also several companies in Port Harcourt that are well equipped to easily handle this operation. If help is not found at a time like this in Port Harcourt, where then ?

The basement has two floors and the collapsed building is suspended over the basement. As at 3am yesterday (Sunday 25th Nov.), cries were still being heard from the basement of the building. A trapped victim, a pregnant woman (the food seller at the site) contacted her husband from her phone, stating that she and some others were trapped by the swimming pool located at the basement and that water was coming out from the ground and had reached their chest level (GRA phase 1 Port Harcourt is reclaimed/sandfilled land). Pumping machines didn’t arrive the site until Rotary club brought one at about 1.40pm. Even at that, there was no visible effort to begin draining the basement floors. One can only imagine what could have happened to the victims trapped there!

As at 9.35am today, rescue operations were yet to commence. By this evening, one Jack Hammer has been deployed to the site but this is grossly inadequate to tackle the situation on ground.

Time is of the essence now. We are heartbroken and helpless, unable to do anything as our loved ones wither within the rubble of this site.

Please friends, kindly tag anyone who can help and re-post till the true picture gets to the necessary authorities.

Kindly also remember us in prayers.

Regards.

From a concerned Father.
Dr. Chi Ihionu

FTC..OMG!!!!... I feel like crying right now

A nation where people's lives are never cherished.

The IPOB wailers would attack, accuse and blame Buhari claiming he cherishes cows more than their lives BUT, they forgot Kanu sef cherishes a dog's life more than their own lives.

Las, las... Our Nigeria Gov't is just a reflection of the Nigerian people!

Nigeria is a failed country, our lives don't matter at all.

i am tired of this hypocrisy and eye service.

To make matters worse, the excavators downed tools on sunday morning claiming non payment by god knows who, only to start operations the moment Governor Wike’s convoy was heard approaching and of course stopped immediately the governor left. Unfortunately, the police created a barricade, thus preventing us from accessing the governor to inform him of the hypocrisy of the entire rescue operations.

Useless Governor, he doesn't care about his people but about who votes for him.

I have given up on this useless country

Regulatory bodies must stand and carry out their statutory duties.

Woji, hmm

every thing in naija are just awkward


only God will save us

I THINK NIGERIA SHOULD BE WIPED OUT OF THE SURFACE OF THIS EARTH. THIS IS NOT A COUNTRY, NO, NOT AT ALL.

Sorry

tgis is nigeria
the family shiuld orvanise sem self and go help there people

J

if is to sack local government caretaker chairman and brodcasting house manager he will sharp his mouth. jonzing wike

what a country

This is really heart breaking!

Give ur family members the game let them play, in and be rich, scam alert
Give ur kindred
Ur in laws
Ur nice, nephew and so on

PROBIG333:
DON'T BE LEFT OUT
NOBODY IS BORN TO BE A FAILURE IN LIFE
YOU CAN MAKE IT TOO
FOR YOU TO BE RICH OR POOR IS IN YOUR HANDS
HARD WORK CAN'T MAKE YOU RICH
WORK SMART AND MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR PHONE

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PROBIG333:
DON'T BE LEFT OUT
NOBODY IS BORN TO BE A FAILURE IN LIFE
YOU CAN MAKE IT TOO
FOR YOU TO BE RICH OR POOR IS IN YOUR HANDS
HARD WORK CAN'T MAKE YOU RICH
WORK SMART AND MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR PHONE

You both lack sense and empathy. Is it this kind of thread you should advertise your yeye business?

You make millions from the scam yet your life still remains the way it is.

I dey come make I comot pot from Fire

Ok

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justice must be served hot

What I saw there today makes me weep for my dear country, because the people who are at the helm of the affairs have no idea of what to do simply because they are product of man know man, and they are not listening to those that have the idea simple because they have open office on top of the matter.

God Help us

oruma19:
I THINK NIGERIA SHOULD BE WIPED OUT OF THE SURFACE OF THIS EARTH. THIS IS NOT A COUNTRY, NO, NOT AT ALL.

lt is very unfortunate what is happening in Nigeria and yet people are still clapping for the useless politicians instead of stoning them to death

F