Yaba Building Collapse: 4 Bodies Recovered; 2 Hospitalised, As Lagos Arrests Developer, Begins Probe

At least four unidentified victims were discovered in the ruins of a three-story building under construction that collapsed last Saturday afternoon at Akanbi Street, near to UNILAG main Gate, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos.

Two bodies were recovered immediately on Saturday afternoon, and two more bodies were recovered late that evening by men from the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Lagos State Fire Service and Rescue, Nigeria Police, and others, bringing the total number of people killed in the tragic incident to four.

The construction workers were reportedly on site when the structure collapsed, trapping them beneath the rubble.

Dr. Idris Salako, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, verified the incident, saying that two victims with varied injuries were rescued and sent to the hospital for treatment.

Salako accused the developer of violating a previous “stop-work order” placed on the site by officials from the Lagos State Building Control Agency, or LASBCA.

He emphasized that the state administration will not tolerate any violations of the 2019 Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law (As amended).

“In the meantime, the property developer (name withheld) has been arrested and will be punished under the state’s construction law,” Salako said.

Survivors claim that the developer ignored warning indications when neighbors alerted him to them.

“They told the person off saying it was as a result of ongoing construction work,” an eyewitness who requested anonymity said. “The building in question gave distress signs with some cracking sounds earlier Thursday,” the eyewitness said, “but they told the person off saying it was as a result of ongoing construction work.”

According to Vanguard, a close inspection revealed that the building tilted forward before collapsing around 3.15 p.m. on Saturday.

Dr Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, the Director-General of LASEMA, said the recovery operation had reached almost ground zero as of press time on Sunday, with no further trapped bodies in the rubble.

Further investigation into the immediate and remote causes of the collapse has begun, according to Oke-Osanyintolu, in order to prevent future occurrences.

Earlier, NEMA’s Lagos Territorial Office Coordinator, Ibrahim Farinloye, said proper investigations into the cause of the incident would be carried out. “Proper investigation on the case of the collapse will be carried out by the State to determine the cause of the collapse after the emergency phase,” he said.

The latest building collapse occurred just days after the Chairman of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) Special Investigation Panel (SIP), George Okonoma, and his team submitted a report to COREN President, Engr. Rabiu Ali, on the November 1st, 2021, 21-story Ikoyi building collapse in Lagos.

At COREN’s headquarters in Abuja, Okonoma submitted the findings and suggestions to the council’s president.

He stated that the report was intended for the COREN president and the government to consider before making it public.

“We will ensure that the suggestions are executed by the government,” Ali said after receiving the document, citing COREN’s mandate and Act.

“Going forward, after we’ve seen what went wrong,” Ali said, “there are two things to learn from the situation of the collapsed 21-story building.”

“One must see what went wrong and correct ourselves in the proper manner, as well as to discipline erring practitioners for neglect.”

The state government had already conducted a detailed investigation into the collapse of the Ikoyi 21-story building through a special probe panel chaired by TPL, Toyin Ayinde.

On January 5, 2022, Ayinde presented the report to Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, expressing hope that the submission and subsequent implementation of the suggestions will restore confidence in the national economy’s construction industry.