Heartbroken parents begin to bury their children

Muritala Ayinla

The atmosphere was thick with despair and silent weeping  at the homes of pupils that were still trapped under the rubble and those that there children or beloved ones had died.

Many appeared to have accepted their fates and had already started burying their children amidst tears.

Parents, relatives and sympathizers were too distraught to comment on the tragic incident. Some of them seemed hostile, especially towards journalists. Many of them declined to speak on the incident. Those who managed to speak, break up in the mid-sentence, giving way to tears.

This was the reflection of what is happening at No 1 Faji Street, which is about 30 metres away from the scene of the incident. 

In this particular family, three of their children, Basit, Ayomide, and Mubarak, were involved in the tragic incident.

According to residents, Basit died shortly after he was rushed to the hospital. As at the time of filling this report, the family members were making frantic efforts to save the lives of the remaining children.

A resident, who simply identified herself as Iya Segun blamed the state government for the collapse of the building.

She said: “The building had been marked for demolition over three times, but the agency refused to do anything on it until it eventually collapsed. We heard that alleged that official of building agencies took bribe from owner of the structure and other distressed buildings around the area.”

Iya Segun, who is fuming over many issues, also lambasted and blamed health workers for the death of a lad. She alleged: “Most the children rescued, were abandoned in the hospital and left to die. The victims at Mercy Children Hospital survived, but those taken to General Hospital died.”

She explained that Basit was alive when he was rescued from the rubble.

Now crying profusely, she seethes: “We ran after the ambulance that conveyed him to the General Hospital. Both his father and I were denied access to him. We were not comfortable with the kind of treatment given to him. Perhaps if they had allowed his father to take him to a private hospital, he would not have died. But Basit eventually died. He was buried this morning according to Islamic rites.”

 Also narrating her own ordeal, Mrs Nafisat Adejumo, said her sister’s son, Mubarak Olayinka, nine, sustained severe head injury in the incident. She said that medical workers at the general hospital only gave paracetamol for such a severe injury.

 She added: “As we speak, Mubarak has been taken to General Hospital in Ikorodu. We were asked to look for money for the x-ray. We don’t know how to get that kind of money. Mubarak is under the care of his grandmother. His mother died when he was still just an infant.”

Adejumo further said: “Most of the children wouldn’t have died if oxygen had been provided. Ambulances staff seemed to be too overwhelmed by the number of pupils gasping for breath when they were removed from the rubbles.”

LASEMA declares rescue, recovery operation over

Murtala Ayinla

The General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Tiamiyui Adesina, yesterday, declared that the rescue operation had been concluded, stressing that what remained to be done, was clearing of the building collapse site.

An official of LASEMA, who craved anonymity, said that parents of children, who were yet to be seen, should go to different hospitals to search for them.

He said: “Some of them were taken to Mercy Children Hospital, General Hospital on Lagos Island, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Id-Araba, Lagos Orthopedic Hospital, Gbobi and Gbagada General Hospital and St Nicholas Hospital on Lagos Island. Those are the medical centres where the remaining pupils can be found.”  

It's painful seeing my son in critical condition, mother cries out  

Muritala Ayinla

Yetunde is too traumatised by the sight of her son lying critically in the hospital bed. She had not sat down for over nine hours.

She had been moving from one corner of the Lagos Island General Hospital to the other in search of the prescribed drugs and other needs demanded by the doctors.

Yetunde is one of the mothers of pupils trapped by the ill-fated building. She was among the lucky parents, whose children were pulled out of the rubble alive. The boy survived the injuries and traumatic experience. His two legs were in Plaster of Paris.  

Recollecting the event of the past 24 hours, Yetunde said that she was the person that dressed the boy on that day for school.

She had already left the house, when she received a call that the school, which her son attends, had caved in, leaving many children trapped. She called on well-meaning Nigerians to pray for the speedy recovery of her son. The woman who refused to give the name of her son, busted into tears whenever she made attempt to speak.

‘My sister’s only son, in the school crèche died’

Muritala Ayinla

Among the visibly disturbed women at the Island General Hospital is a lady who simply identified herself as Jimoh Taiwo.

 Taiwo, who was among those resuscitated by the staff of the General hospital following the shock from the tragic incident, said she was in the hospital to commensurate with her sister, whose three children were involved in the collapsed building.

 She said:  “Samiat, Rodiyat and Roqib are my sister’s children. One of the children, who were a year and six months old, died at the Mercy Children’s Hospital. My sister’s children are Samiat Afolabi, six, Rodiyat Afolabi 10 and Roqib Afolabi118- months-old. We lost Roqib in the incident. Roqib was the only son and youngest among the children. Roqib was aged 18 months. He was in the crèche of the school. ”

Survivor:  I spent 3 hours under the rubble before I was rescue

*I heard cries of pupils, proprietress shouting Jesus, while under the rubble

Taiwo Jimoh

A survivor of the three-storey collapsed building, which occurred on Wednesday at Ita-Faji area of Lagos Island, yesterday revealed that he was under the rubble for three hours and at a point feared death was near.

The survivor, Mr. Moruf Abdulakeem said: “I was praying to God to accept and forgive me of my sins, under the rubbles, because I believed the end has come.”

According to him, he became one of the victims after he came out on that fateful day to buy food and a bag of sachet water around 9:30am.

Abdulakeem said that as he was mounting the staircase, almost getting to the third floor, the earth suddenly seemed to shift. The building collapsed.

Abdulakeem, who is the head teacher of the Ohen Nursery and Primary school, said that he teaches Basic Six and only stepped downstairs to buy food because he was ravenously hungry.  He was heading back upstairs, when the earth carved in and he found himself under the rubble.

His words: “Initially, when the building collapsed, I didn’t know where I was until after some minutes. I saw ray light; it was then I knew I was under the building. The first thing that came to my mind was had happened to the pupils. I knew there was no way they could have escaped. I spent about three hours before I could see the ray light. Everywhere was dark; I heard cries of the pupils and the proprietress shouting Jesus! Jesus! I also heard the voice of Baba Ridwan. He was not too far from me under the rubble. We used to pray together in the same mosque. He was calling for help. When I heard his voice, I told him to pray, not to shout.”

Abdulakeem further said: “When I saw the ray light, I tried to raise my hand up. Someone touched me, and called my name. The person told me not to worry that they were coming to rescue me. It took the rescue team an hour before they could remove the slab that fell on me.

"It was after they removed the slab that I felt some relief. The heat under the rubble was too much. It got to a stage, I could not breathe anymore. It was God that saved me. Before the rescue team came, I was getting weaker. I started praying to God to accept my soul. I told Baba Ridwan to pray because at that point, God is the only One that can save us. I sustained injuries on my arm, ribs, chest and legs. Even right now, I’m in severe pains. All the time I was under the rubble, I was praising God. I didn’t know what would happen next. When they eventually brought me out; it was like a dream to me. I thank God for sparing my life; unfortunately, I lost five of my pupils and four others."

Abdulakeem explained that at the Primary Health Centre, where the rescue team took him to, was at Onikan. He said that the doctors there asked him to bring N9, 000 for X-ray and some other treatment.

He added: “Some of my co-teachers are in serious condition. A teacher called Esther is presently in coma. Another of my colleague, Daniel and the proprietress died. Others are in critical condition.”

Abdulakeem’s father, Salawudeen, said: “It’s God that save my son from the collapsed building. I went to buy something when someone called me on phone that a building had collapsed close to my house. I immediately left what I was doing and rushed to the scene. When I got there, I met some of my friends; they were assisting in the rescue operation. I didn’t even know that my son was under the rubble. The last time I saw him, he was on his way to buy food. I didn’t know he had returned and re-entered the school.”

Salawudeen said that he believed that God saved his son, because he selflessly assisted in rescuing people, without knowing that his son was one of the victims.

He added: “I will always thank God for what he has done for me. Moruf is my first child.”

Abdulakeem’s mother, who declined to mention her name or speak with our correspondent, was seen rolling on the ground, thanking God for sparing the life of her son.

Mother of two commits suicide after losing two children birth via CS

Taiwo Jimoh

A mother, who lost two of her children in the collapsed structure on Wednesday, committed suicide after she received news of the death of the children.

The deceased woman, it was learnt, gave birth to the two children, who were between the ages of six and four, through Caesarian Section (CS). When our correspondent visited her house at Gambari area of the Island, the husband refused to speak with our team.

Sympathizers were however seen thronging their house to pay condolence visit to the husband and family she left behind.

Hundreds of teachers and students from different private schools marched to the collapsed site. One of their grievances are that schools should have been given holiday to mourn dead pupils and teachers. They also called on the government to pull down every distressed building on the Lagos Island to check further loss of lives.

Parents of victims, survivors accuse health workers of extortion

Appolonia Adeyemi

Angry parents, yesterday, accused health workers of extorting them.

They alleged that the health workers asked them to pay for medical facilities and drugs required for the treatment of their children, who were involved in the building collapse incident.

The Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Dr. Jide Idris, however, said that the government couldn’t give a definite figure on the number of casualties, but was working on ensuring that all casualties received quality care.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Lagos State, Dr. Titilayo Goncalves, said that the Lagos State Government would pay for the treatment of all survivors.

Meanwhile, activities at the General Hospital, Lagos are back to normal. A visit there showed that only a few relations and well-wishers were seen moving in and out the Lagos State Emergency Unit of the hospital.

The Medical Director, General Hospital, Lagos, Dr Ismail Ganikale, said that no new casualty of the school building collapse had been brought to the hospital as at yesterday.

He said that the management had rallied the medical team and were doing some mop up in order to get the right number of casualties.

Father: I heard my daughter was under the rubble on Facebook

Appolonia Adeyemi

The father of an 18-year-old teacher, known as Esther, disclosed that he got to hear that his daughter was involved in the collapsed building incident and under the rubble via Facebook.

The man, who introduced himself simply as Pius, said that members of his church, The Deeper Life Bible Church, drew his attention to the Facebook message.

Esther is a West African School Certificate Holder, and had accepted the teaching job as a stop-gap measure pending when she would secure admission into the university.

Pius said that when he received the news of the building collapse and Esther being one of the victims, he outrightly lost consciousness, but was later revived.

He recounted: “It was other members of my family that went in search of Esther. They couldn’t locate her at the site. This further caused increased our fears. However, a visit to the General Hospital in Marina was fruitful. My family members found her among the casualties admitted for treatment.”

Relating how some health workers extorted some money from him at the General Hospital Lagos, Pius lamented he learnt that the Lagos State Government had announced it would treat all victims from the incident for free.

He added: "I was surprised when a nurse in the hospital requested that I should bring N2, 000 for the purchase of some medications needed to treat my Esther. When I noticed that further treatment for her was delayed on the excuse that I did not release the N2, 000, I had to give the nurse the N, 2,000. Thereafter, the nurses attending to Esther commenced treatment, which had earlier been abandoned."

Pius said that he was very happy and grateful to God because Esther was steadily improving.

He said: "Although, she cannot stand on her own yet. But she can now recognise visitors and speak audibly.”

The father of another patient, Mr Tooeb  Amao, whose eight-year-old son, Khaled Amoa, was rescued from the rubble, lamented that health workers at the General Hospital Lagos asked him to pay for some medical facilities needed to treat his son.

Khaled, who was also rescued from the rubble of the building, fractured his left leg and has been in pains since yesterday.

He said: "When I informed the nurses that my son needed attention due to his pain and discomfort, they said that there was nothing they could do if facilities needed to effect the treatment were not available. When I asked them how much would be needed to purchases the needed items, they said N9000. I provided N4000, while my siblings who visited my son at the hospital rallied round and brought N9,000.”