By Evelyn Usman
Lagos—Six days after a five-storey building used
as guest house by the Synagogue Church of All
Nations, SCOAN collapsed, killing scores of
persons and injuring several others, the church
was yet to produce names of lodgers in the
building.
Although the South African government had
Tuesday claimed that 67 of its citizens perished
in the collapsed building but rescue operators
are faced with the challenge of identifying the
nationalities of the dead and survivors, owing to
what they alleged as reluctance from SCOAN to
produce the names.
Besides, indication emerged that some
countries, among which is Australia, have been
calling in to ascertain the plight of their citizens
feared might be victims.
Death toll now 80
This is as the death toll rose to 80 yesterday
with the recovery of additional 17 victims
comprising 12 women and five men, with the
number of survivors still 131.
Fielding questions from newsmen on the
contradiction in the number of death between
rescue operators and President Jacob Zuma of
South Africa, the South West spokesperson for
the National Emergency Management Agency,
NEMA Ibrahim Farinloye, maintained that as at
Tuesday, when Zuma came up with his figure,
the death toll was 63.
Farinloye said, “I don’t know where President
Zuma got his information from. He is not on
ground here but we are. So, we presume he is
operating based on information made available
to him. We are working on what we got based
on operation. As I speak, we have record of 80
persons dead and 131 rescued alive. The figure
rose to 80 because we recovered two bodies by
11pm on Tuesday and another two at about 3am
today (Wednesday) and the rest between 10am
and 4pm. We will continue working until we get
to the last level of excavation because it is
possible that more bodies are still trapped
underneath the rubble.
On list of victims
However, a member of the church, who spoke
on condition on anonymity to Vanguard, assured
that SCOAN was likely to come out with the list
today.
The worker said: ”We were overwhelmed by the
incident. And we were fully involved in the
rescue. I assure you that we will come out with
the list by tomorrow (today) because there is no
way you can hide the corpses, as some of them
need to be flown to their respective countries”.
We won’t confiscate site just yet—LAGOS
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has
stated that it had no plan to confiscate the site
of the collapsed building until investigation into
its cause was concluded.
In a statement yesterday by the Commissioner
for Physical Planning and Urban Development,
Olutoyin Ayinde, it said;
“Government does not arbitrarily take over
properties when investigation is still on-going.
The state government is conducting a
preliminary investigation into the cause(s) of the
collapse and would leave no stone unturned. If
there is any violation of relevant planning law,
residents are assured that government would
take appropriate action.”
He said that ‘there are no plans to take over the
collapsed structure site until thorough and
detailed investigation as to the cause(s) of the
collapse has been concluded.
“A team of engineers from the ministry and
other government agencies are taking samples
from the foundation and materials from the
wreckage of the building for detailed analysis and
testing to ascertain the structural integrity of
the building”.
On the “Strange Plane Theory”, alleged to have
dangerously flown low over the building minutes
before its collapse, Ayinde disclosed that the
ministry had submitted the video clips, as
provided by the church to the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority (NCAA) with the co-ordinate of
the collapsed site for investigation and
professional comment.
source: www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/synagogue-reluctant-release-names-victims/

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nora544: .

am still

They should check the structural integrity of the nearby buildings like they did for the twin towers collapse. Those other buildings may have been affected.