• Two dead, four feared trapped

• Govt orders arrest of developer, others

Earnings from a worker on the top floor of the seven-storey building in Lagos helped about 30 other artisans to escape before the property went down yesterday.

The man was said to have jumped down from the building under construction at about 3:30am while the structure located at Oba Idowu Oniru Street by Ave Maria Hospital, near Sandfield Bus Stop, Lekki, started collapsing, it was learnt.

Two men have been confirmed dead by the police and emergency workers, while four others were thought to be trapped in the rubble.

Some of the survivors who identified his body to emergency workers at the site yesterday said all occupants could have perished in the disaster if not for the worker who noticed the building going down slowly after vibrations that lasted a few minutes.

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It was gathered that the building had been sealed since February last year by the state government but construction work continued despite alleged obvious structural defects.

A vulcaniser said the engineer in charge of the project had warned workers to avoid sleeping there but they usually sneaked in late at night when he had left the site.

“About 30 people jumped to safety after he raised alarm that the building was collapsing. He jumped from the topmost floor to the ground and was shouting. It was his warning that alerted people and that’s how about 30 people escaped death.

“People were just jumping off as the building was coming down.”

Giving update on search and rescue operations, Lagos Territorial Office Coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye, said they had got to ground stage.

“The operations have gotten to the last floor but we are working on the worst scenario and hoping that rescue of people is still possible. So far just those two bodies have been recovered and evacuated from the scene. Four persons are feared trapped,” he said.

The state government has ordered the arrest of the developer and other professionals working on the building, Mr Mukaila Sanusi, spokesman of the state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development said.

The Commissioner in the Ministry, Dr Idris Salako, gave the order during his visit to the collapsed building site.

Salako said that the developer and professionals were liable because they did not regard the planning laws of the state.