Desperate family members on Tuesday waited tight for information on missing persons after a Lagos high rise building collapsed , killing six people and leaving more trapped inside.
The 21-story building was under construction when it fell suddenly into a pile of concrete slabs on Monday in wealthy Ikoyi region of Nigeria’s.
Rescuers say they have figured out how to haul four people out of the wreck, but construction workers fear dozens of their colleagues are trapped inside.
Sitting on the asphalt close to the squashed remaining parts of the structure, siblings Fawas Sanni, 21 and Afolabi Sanni, 17, were shellshocked as they hung tight for information on their sister.
“Our sister is inside,” said Fawas, a tear rolling down his cheek.
Their 25-year-old-sister Zainab was posted on September 6 on the building site by the National Youth Service Corps, they said.
“I was the last one who to spoke to her before she went to work yesterday morning,” said the older brother, covering his head with his hands.
Building collapses are lamentably common in Lagos and across Africa’s most crowded country where substandard materials, carelessness and lack of enforcement of construction guidelines are serious issues.
Lagos state police say it is too soon to decide why the Ikoyi building collapsed, however Lagos crisis the executives organization supervisor Femi Oke-Osanyintolu said infractions had been committed in its construction.
“We are going to get to the roots of the matter to prevent a recurrence. So far six bodies have been recovered, four pulled out alive while three others with minor injuries have been treated,”
Two tractors were diving in the heap of cement on Tuesday.
Across the road from the site, Moses Oladipo, 65, was hanging tight for news from his 50-year-old child, who has three kids.
“He just came here to visit his friend, before his flight back to the US where he lives,” said the father, crouching on the ground, close to the entrance.
“They rescued a man last night… I thought it was him, but no… I still have hope.”
Lagos State Governor has however ordered an investigation into the incident.
In one of Nigeria’s most horror catastrophes, over 100 people, generally South Africans, passed on when a church guesthouse disintegrated in Lagos in 2014.
An inquiry found the structure had been built unlawfully and had underlying defects.
After two years, 60 individuals people killed when a rooftop fell in on a church in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom state, in the east of the country.
