More Bodies Recovered From Synagogue Building Collapse in Nigeria
by FRANCIS SUBERU AND DARE AKOGUN
Nigerian Mirror
Sep 16, 2014
The death toll in the five-storey building collapse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ikotun, Lagos, has risen to 50.
This is just as officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, said the possibility of recovering more bodies was high.
Also, the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police Force said it would deploy five sniffer dogs to scene of the incident to help check the rubble for more bodies and locate trapped victims.
South-West spokesperson of NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, in a statement, commended the decision of the Lagos State Police Command, saying that the dogs would assist in the searchand- rescue and in early conclusion of the operations. He said:
“We are deploying Nigeria Police sniffer dogs to assist in locating trapped victims as we are getting close to area suspected to have more people trapped.
“The Commissioner of Police has ordered the release of five dogs after a collective decision to use dogs by responding agencies and NEMA asked the Police’ Disaster Management Unit to facilitate the release and management of the dogs.”
Although the death toll has increased from 44, which was the last update given on Sunday to 50, the number of people rescued remained 130.
As at the time of filing this report, there has not been any official statement from the Lagos State Government on the incident.
Efforts to speak with the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, were unsuccessful as he was attending the weekly Executive Comiitee meeting with Governor Babatunde Fashola along with his colleagues.
Ayinde, who accompanied the governor to the scene on Sunday, had said the building had no approval of the state government, stressing that the state was unaware that such heavy construction was going on in the area.
However, the Founder of the church, Pastor Temitope Joshua, said that God would get back at those he believed were behind the collapse of the building on Friday.
The cleric insisted that the incident was the handiwork of those bent on destroying his reputation and the church. “A big head wears the lion’s heart.
Don’t quickly forget the incident of Boko Haram here, even though it was televised, they said it was a lie, but they later realised it was true.
“Don’t also forget the Ebola issue here too; they sent messages to all of you to scare you from coming to this church. “Don’t be scared, you are not the target, I am the target,” he told the congregation. “I know my hour has not yet come. I have not finished my job.”
Meanwhile, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, has given the Federal and the Lagos State governments a 48-hours ultimatum to commence a full-scale investigation to unravel the cause of the collapse.
A statement by the National President Sunny Enenuvwedia and the National Treasurer, Deji Adebowale, said the governments must unravel the identities of the helicopter and the strange airplane that flew low over the collapsed building four times within 24 minutes before its sudden collapse.
If the ultimatum was not met, the group said it will call on the African Union and the United Nations to, as a matter of urgency, compel the Federal government to do so.
“We deem it necessary to demand that the Lagos State Government should conduct investigation into the structural cause (if any) of the collapse of the building as a matter of urgency.
The statement added: “That the authority of the Synagogue Church of All Nations should cooperate with appropriate authorities to get to the root cause of the unfortunate incident and that every person and institution in Nigeria should be more security conscious”.
The CDHR also said that it had set up a committee to follow up on the above demands and fully investigate the cause of the incident and submit its report to the group.
The committee, however, noted that it had commenced investigation after the incident by contacting its members living in the area, stressing that they had received information from them on their observations of what happened on the day.
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| Synagogue collapse in Lagos, Nigeria. |
Nigerian Mirror
Sep 16, 2014
The death toll in the five-storey building collapse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ikotun, Lagos, has risen to 50.
This is just as officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, said the possibility of recovering more bodies was high.
Also, the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police Force said it would deploy five sniffer dogs to scene of the incident to help check the rubble for more bodies and locate trapped victims.
South-West spokesperson of NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, in a statement, commended the decision of the Lagos State Police Command, saying that the dogs would assist in the searchand- rescue and in early conclusion of the operations. He said:
“We are deploying Nigeria Police sniffer dogs to assist in locating trapped victims as we are getting close to area suspected to have more people trapped.
“The Commissioner of Police has ordered the release of five dogs after a collective decision to use dogs by responding agencies and NEMA asked the Police’ Disaster Management Unit to facilitate the release and management of the dogs.”
Although the death toll has increased from 44, which was the last update given on Sunday to 50, the number of people rescued remained 130.
As at the time of filing this report, there has not been any official statement from the Lagos State Government on the incident.
Efforts to speak with the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Toyin Ayinde, were unsuccessful as he was attending the weekly Executive Comiitee meeting with Governor Babatunde Fashola along with his colleagues.
Ayinde, who accompanied the governor to the scene on Sunday, had said the building had no approval of the state government, stressing that the state was unaware that such heavy construction was going on in the area.
However, the Founder of the church, Pastor Temitope Joshua, said that God would get back at those he believed were behind the collapse of the building on Friday.
The cleric insisted that the incident was the handiwork of those bent on destroying his reputation and the church. “A big head wears the lion’s heart.
Don’t quickly forget the incident of Boko Haram here, even though it was televised, they said it was a lie, but they later realised it was true.
“Don’t also forget the Ebola issue here too; they sent messages to all of you to scare you from coming to this church. “Don’t be scared, you are not the target, I am the target,” he told the congregation. “I know my hour has not yet come. I have not finished my job.”
Meanwhile, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, has given the Federal and the Lagos State governments a 48-hours ultimatum to commence a full-scale investigation to unravel the cause of the collapse.
A statement by the National President Sunny Enenuvwedia and the National Treasurer, Deji Adebowale, said the governments must unravel the identities of the helicopter and the strange airplane that flew low over the collapsed building four times within 24 minutes before its sudden collapse.
If the ultimatum was not met, the group said it will call on the African Union and the United Nations to, as a matter of urgency, compel the Federal government to do so.
“We deem it necessary to demand that the Lagos State Government should conduct investigation into the structural cause (if any) of the collapse of the building as a matter of urgency.
The statement added: “That the authority of the Synagogue Church of All Nations should cooperate with appropriate authorities to get to the root cause of the unfortunate incident and that every person and institution in Nigeria should be more security conscious”.
The CDHR also said that it had set up a committee to follow up on the above demands and fully investigate the cause of the incident and submit its report to the group.
The committee, however, noted that it had commenced investigation after the incident by contacting its members living in the area, stressing that they had received information from them on their observations of what happened on the day.
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