By Linus Akomolafe
At least 22 mutilated bodies have been recovered and nine rescued from the rubbles of a 21-storey building that collapsed on Monday afternoon in Lagos.
The supposed residential building located at Gerrard Road in the Ikoyi area, was said to be under construction with about 50 construction workers on the building before it buried the workers at about 2p.m.
Documents from Lagos State Physical Permit seen by IkejaBird reveals that only 15 floors was approved for the 21-storey building before it was upscaled to 21-storey.
According to a worker who stopped work on the site last week, Adewonyin Ebenezer, told IkejaBird that before he terminated his work at the site, he eavesdropped on the conversation of the person in charge of the construction work (still trapped in the building), that God told him to increase the numbers of floors.
“He naturally has an ego and whenever we work for him, he would delay our payments and think we are nobody. We overheard him saying God asked him to build 21-storey while it was 15 that was approved. We learnt that he paid N200m to get the approval of this 21-storey building,” he said.
Earlier, in a statement made by the suspended General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LSABCA), Mr. Gbolahan Oki, the owner of the building got approval for 15 floors.
The approval was for 15 floor, three blocks of buildings was issued to Fourscore Height Limited of 44b,c,d Gerard Road, Southwest Ikoyi on 9 April, 2019 for residential purpose with the registration number 1v2019/DO/033/67 issued on 5 April, 2019 while the Development Permit Number issued on 9 April, 2019 was DCB/DO/2442 IV.
Investigation revealed that Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had earlier ordered the buildings be sealed off which lasted for four months.
However, the approval for 21-storey and the cancellation of the seal still remain sketchy as at press time.
Meanwhile, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who visited the site on Wednesday, has issued a 30-day timeline to the panel of enquiry set up to investigate the cause of the collapse of the building.
Mr. Sanwo-Olu while addressing journalists at the scene on Wednesday said he had flown back to the country from Rome to the scene upon hearing the incident.
He added that of the nine survivors, six are still in the hospital while three with minor injuries have been discharged adding that the numbers of persons buried in the debris are still unconfirmed.
“As I have said, we don’t have a manifest, anybody you think that came here to work or is a worker here, we would take down the names,” he said.
“If you have a photograph of the person, it would be very useful. We also want your name and contact of who is presenting. We do not want more than one or two family members.”
The search and rescue operations are still ongoing as distraught relatives are still gathered at the ‘help desk’ to put down names of their family members trapped in the debris.
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