Dayo Adeyemi, Taiwo Jimoh and
Murtala Ayinla
The
building, which crumpled like a pack of card, was said to have occurred at
about 10am, moments after the pupils had said their prayers and commenced the
day’s routine. According to the residents, two buildings
were said to be involved. The three storey building fell on a bungalow.
For parents of the pupils,
residents, relatives and neighbours, it was a confusing scene as they rushed to
nearby hospitals in search of their children.
They didn’t know if their children
had been taken to hospital, dead, injured or still trapped under the rubbles.
One of them, who simply identified
herself as Fatimoh, wept uncontrollably, saying: “I’ve been to all the
emergency centres in search of my son, but I couldn’t find him.”
Many houses around the buildings
were also affected as some of their houses partly collapsed and their property
destroyed. The occupants of the buildings around were also injured and
rushed to the hospital.
There had been conflicting reports
on the number of those killed, trapped and injured.
One version of the story insists
that about 27 pupils and five adults were killed. Among the dead adults are the
owner of the school and a member of Pashi Willoughby CDA in Lagos Island,
Kazeem Lawal.
It was further said that about 33
pupils of the school, three adults and a pregnant woman were rescued from the
rubbles.
The tragic incident occurred at 36
Massey Street, near Itafaji Market just as the pupils of Ohen Nursery and
Primary school, which is at the last of the building had commenced the day’s
learning.
It is believed that at least another
15 children and a teacher are trapped under the rubbles as one of the victims,
a man, is said to have called via phone, claiming that fifteen of the pupils
were under his care inside the rubbles.
Tears
as parents, sympathisers, mourn months old babies
Muritala Ayinla
Mothers and sympathisers wailed
bitterly as the three storey building collapsed on some few months old babies
kept in the crèche room of the school.
The building housed a nursery and
primary school. Many people, including teachers, staff and residents were
trapped.
An eye witness said: “There
are trapped infants of months-old whose parents dropped at the crèche in the
OHEN Nursery and Primary School before going to work and business centres in
the morning.”
‘Building
showing signs of wear, over 50 years’
Dayo Adeyemi
Residents in neighbouring buildings
disclosed that the three-storey building had been showing signs of distress
before it carved in yesterday.
They said it had been peeling off
with some parts already partially giving way before it eventually caved in.
According to nearby residents, the
building was over 50 year-old and that owner had not been carried out a major
rehabilitation except painting of the outer part.
For the rescue and
emergency responders such as the officials of the Lagos State Emergency
Management Agency, LASEMA, Rapid Respond Squad, RSS, Lagos Neighbourhood and
Safety Corps and other agencies it was a busy and difficult
day as they had hectic time controlling and managing the crowd at the
same time. The developer of the ill-fated building is yet to be
discovered.
Our correspondent gathered that the
ill-fated building, had shops at the ground floor; its first and second floor
housed the primary and nursery schools. The third floor was used as
residential.
For hours, heavy duty rescue
equipment deployed to the scene couldn’t move in due to the over-chocked
nature of buildings on the island, but it was learnt that many residents had
volunteered to rescue the trapped victims.
As at the time of filing this
report, about 45 people had been rescued and rushed to the General
Hospital, while a yet to be ascertained number of trapped victims were said to
have died upon recovery of their bodies from the rubbles.
We heard loud noise moments after pupils prayed –Eye witness
Muritala Ayinla
An eyewitness, who wished not to be
mentioned, said that the pupils had prayed and sung all the rhymes,
rendition and other exercises in the morning when the world suddenly turned
dark for them.
His words: “The school is close to
our building. They had already settled for the class work, when all of a
sudden, we just a heard loud noise and the entire environment became dusty. The
visibility was zero. Our aged mum 92-year-old was also affected. Part of the
collapsed building fell on Mama. She had also been rushed to the hospital.”
Pregnant
teacher, children dragged out of rubbles alive
A pregnant school teacher, mother and two children
were among the lucky victims rescued from the scene of building collapse.
Although, they sustained degrees of injuries, they had been rushed to the
hospital for medical attention.
The Pashi Willoughby CDA exco
member, Kazeem Lawal could not make it as it was learnt that he just return
from his night duty security job and was in his room sleeping when the incident
occurred. His remains was brought out and taken to General hospital mortuary,
Lagos Island.
A barber, Mr. Adeyemo also lost one
of his twins daughters to the incident as the first to be rescued survived the
incident. Government ambulances from nearby areas were used in carrying the
rescued victims while officials of Fire service, security operatives, Lagos
State government officials worked together with street urchins on the rescue
mission. A heavy crane, belonging to
Julius Berger was also brought to scene of incident to assist rescuers.
Many
buildings tested, due for demolition-Ambode
The Lagos State, Governor, Akinwunmi
Ambode, who visited the scene of the incident, blamed landlords for the
incident.
He said: “Many of the houses had
been tested and recommended to be demolished, but landlords are not cooperating
with us. I’m appealing to the residents and landlords to cooperate with the
government officials and allow them do their jobs.”
Ambode commiserated with families of victims who
lost their lives, most of whom are children.
Ambode, who got to the scene of the incident at
about 2:42pm, described the incident as unfortunate. He appealed to residents
to allow rescue operators the space to carry out their operations without hindrance,
so as to rescue more children.
He said: “I want to commiserate with families of
those that lost their lives in this collapsed building. I want to quickly let
Lagosians know that this is quite an unfortunate incident. All we are trying to
do is to scale up this rescue operation. Our response units are already here;
we are getting additional cranes to be able to go deeper than where we are now
to rescue more lives. I just want to appeal to people that when we are doing
this kind of rescue operation, yes, sympathizers will naturally come but I want
to appeal that they should give the rescue workers the chance to save more
lives.”
The Governor said his Deputy, Dr. Mrs. Oluranti
Adebule, had also visited hospitals where some of the rescued victims had been
taken to, assuring that the State Government would take over their treatment
and foot the entire bill.
The Governor said he had received information that
the building was a residential one, with the school operating illegally within
the premises, adding that about two floors of the building sunk to the ground.
He said that most of the buildings in the area had
been marked for demolition, but that some property owners in the area defy such
notices, assuring that going forward, structural defective buildings would be
demolished.
Ambode added: “The first observation is that this is
an old building and it is only the Pent House and the other floors that we have
been able to use to rescue people. So far, from what I have been briefed, we
have rescued about 25 people and some already dead, but we were earlier
informed that it was a school, the building is not technically a school, it is
a residential building that was actually accommodating an illegal school so to
speak on the second floor.
“Like we have said, we have been carrying out a lot
if integrity tests on the buildings in this neighborhood and as you can see,
some of them have been marked for demolition but we get resistance from
landlords but we must continue to save lives and we would intensify our efforts
to see that those have failed our integrity test, we would ensure that they are
quickly evacuated and we bring the structures down.”
Ambode also said that a full scale investigation
would be carried out immediately rescue operations are concluded, vowing that
those found culpable would be severely dealt with in accordance with the
relevant laws.
“This is unfortunate but we will investigate
what has happened and also see the punishment for whoever are the culprits.
That is the secondary level but the most important thing right now is to save
lives and I just appeal to people that they should give us the chance to save
more lives.”
He reassured
citizens that rescue operations would continue until all victims were
rescued. He added that the General Officer Commanding 81 Division and the
Brigade Commander were on ground to maintain peace and ensure smooth rescue
operations.
Responding to a concern raised by a resident on the
increase in illegal schools in the area, Ambode said all schools that fall
within that category would be shut down.
Birthday
boy still trapped as frantic teacher phones from under rubbles
Dayo Ayeyemi and Muritala Ayinla
A birthday boy, who was forced by his dad to go to school
to mark his birthday is said to be among the trapped victims.
The information came, just as a frantic male
teacher, repeatedly called from the under the rubble that he was alive, but
praying to be rescued soonest.
Our correspondents gathered that the birthday boy
had refused to come to the school on the day, but his father insisted that he
must be in school for his birthday. The boy is still among those trapped in the
ill-fated buildings.
*Pregnant
woman, pupils, proprietress killed
*Nurse: Four pupils died minutes after being rushed
to hospital
Taiwo Jimoh
Another pregnant woman, the school proprietress and tenants were among
those that lost their lives in the collapsed building.
It was gathered that the building had been earmarked
for demolition, but occupants and owner had often pleaded with government that
they didn’t have money to rent another apartment.
At least 20 people, including children were killed, including
a set of twins. Most of the rescued victims were rushed to Massey Hospital,
close to the scene and other hospitals.
A worker at the Massey hospital, who spoke with our
correspondent on the condition of anonymity said: “Four out of those ,who were
taken to Massey Hospital died few minutes after they were brought to the hospital.
Also, six victims that were rushed to general hospital died around the same
time.”
Angry hoodlums in the area pelted governor Ambode with
sachet water as he was about leaving the scene.
It was gathered that the school moved to the
ill-fated building some years ago, after parents of pupils complained of the
bad condition of the last building.
Distraught parents of pupils and residents of the
building were seen around the scene of the rescue operation, hoping and praying
that their beloved ones would be rescued.
Ex-
teacher: I resigned in December because of the school condition
Miss Bukola Salami, a former staff teacher in the
school, said: “The proprietress of the school had been told to vacate the
building, but she said she didn’t have money to rent another place. It was actually
because of the bad condition of the building that made me to resign in December.
I didn’t want to risk my life. It’s unfortunate that such incident is
happening. Everything looks so surreal to me.”
A resident of the collapsed building, who introduced
himself as Akin, said: “The building was marked for demolition, but the
developers found a way to stop the demolition. I was at work, when I got news
of the incident. Two years ago, developers carried out minor renovations works
on the building.”
A resident in the area, Mr. Adewale Owoso said:
“When the building collapsed, it was
like a bomb. We were just sitting down in front of the school when
we heard a loud sound. We all scampered in different directions. After
the dust settled, we realised that it was the school that collapsed. We quickly
mobilised and began rescue operation. We had rescued more than 20 people,
before the emergency workers arrived.”
A woman, Iya Mola, said: “Many people didn’t
even know that there was a school there, but I know. The school is popularly
called, ‘Auntie Esther School. This is the third place that the school had been
relocated to within this community.”
Another resident of the area, who simply identified
himself as Taofeek said: “The building was very weak and it has been
marked for demolition about two years ago. Some of the residents had already
packed out of the building, but the proprietress and some of her teachers were trying
to relocate the pupils when the accident happened .”
A resident, Sodiq Adewunmi, said: “It was first
marked for demolition in 2011, but the owner managed to prevent the demolition.
Somehow, the building was renovated about three years ago, but it was still
visible that it was defective. The ongoing drainage construction near the
building might have caused the collapse of the house.”
My
sister’s three children under the rubble, cried woman
*My friend, with seven children ran mad after school
collapse
A weeping Mrs. Aishat Onilenla said: “ My sister’s
three children are trapped in the collapsed building. My sister was at the
scene, but she had been dragged home. We don’t want her to see the corpse of
the children. We don’t know whether they would be brought out alive or dead.”
She gave the name of the pupils as Rodiat,
Mariam and Tope. “As we are now, we don’t know our fate. But we are hoping on
God; that he will bring them out safely. A friend of mine, who has seven
children in the school, ran mad after she got the information. I don’t know how
she is going to survived it. It is too much for her to bear. We have seen a lot
on the Island. Government should also be blame for the collapse building, over
its failure to carry out demolition of some marked buildings.”
The angry residents alleged that some of the
government officials were using the marked building to extort landlords.
The General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency
Management Agency (LASEMA), Adesina Tiamiyu, while speaking with journalists
said that 40 people had been rescued as at that time.
The deputy speaker of the state house of assembly,
Wasiu Esinlokun, who visited the scene of the incident, said that a notice for
demolition was served on the building on Tuesday, a day before the building
collapsed
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