In the Lekki neighbourhood of Lagos State, a seven-story structure collapsed close to the Sand field bus stop, trapping no less than six people inside the debris.
The Lagos Territorial Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the incident on Sunday.
He said, “Seven-storey building collapsed at Sand field bus stop, Lekki. Six people are said to be trapped and responders on the ground.”
However, The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, in his reaction to the incident, said that upon arrival, it was discovered that the seven-storey building was under construction when it caved in.
He said, “we were informed at 3:15 and we activated our emergency response plan and we were able to recover two bodies and the operation is still going on.
“However, when we got to the scene we were informed by one of the workers that about six people were trapped under the rubble of the collapsed structure.
“We use a lot of equipment and technology that will detect any living person inside the collapsed building from different angles and we did not detect any living person but despite that fact, we still relied on the information given to us.
“We searched from the top to the ground but nothing and at the third level, that was when we recovered two bodies.
We moved straight to the ground level and we did not recover anybody but you see when you’re talking about ‘search and rescue operation’, you must search to the ground level and I and my team are still doing that.
There’s no specific time given to the rescue mission. It can finish at anytime depending on the result.
How quick was your response plan?
The Oniru of Oniru activated our response plan and the response plan was activated by 3:15. That was when we got the distress call.
When it was activated, we moved immediately with our excavators and we got to the scene at about 3:25. Bare in my mind that my zonal officer was already there earlier than that time. We only took that time because of the heavy equipment we needed to carry.
