•How footballer who came to buy food died clutching ATM card
•Collapse would have been averted if LABSCA had marked building – CDA chair
Heaps of concrete, bent rods, exposed steel and metals objects littered the site. The Police and officers of the LNSC (Lagos neighbourhood Safety Agency) kept guard at the entrance with a handful of the uniformed personnel securing the emergency workers still excavating what was left of the collapsed three-storey building at Oremeta Street in Ojodu Berger area of Lagos. UDEH ONYEBUCHI reports.
On a Saturday morning at about 8:30am, the bustling street of Oremeta was jolted by the scary sound of a collapsing building. The building, a three-storey edifice housed the popular Equal-Rights Restaurant and Bar. The incident plunged dozens of patrons, workers, neighbours and passers-by into a nightmarish scamper for survival. What began as another bustling weekend breakfast spot quickly turned into a scene of chaos, dust and anguish, leaving the community visibly disheveled and authorities racing against time to rescue the trapped.
Not without a warning
A resident and a customer at the restaurant, Adeyemi Akinleye, who said he has been patronising the popular spot for years even when the founder was alive, told The Nation: “This building has been here for at least 15 years. They bought it and left it for a while; it was when they decided to add another decking on top that that this whole issue started.”
A premier Lotto operator popularly known as Baba-Ijebu, Faith, said she wasn’t around when the incident happened but stated that people had been complaining about the development. “We complained about them adding another structure on the existing two-storeys; that it won’t stand. However, both the engineer and the CEO of Equal-Right Restaurant and Bar, Omotanwa Ogembe, went on to work on the third storey, despite our warning, and without any rigorous materials or structure testing or effort to stave off disaster.
A former staff member who worked with Equal-Right in 2020, Sandra Akin, stated that the building was already dripping water even as far back, especially when it rained.
“It was an uncompleted building, so the dripping water was not unexpected. But I think it is the years of dripping water that must have weakened the building,” she said.
The initial rescue efforts
At roughly 8:00am, the building’s ground floor, a hive of early-morning activity, caved in. Akinleye described it as a thunderous crack; then the metallic tang of dust choking the air. One of the rescued victims who was taken to the Trauma Centre in Alausa, said the building collapsed barely five minutes after he entered the premises. Within moments, the police, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service converged on the site, deploying light and heavy-duty equipment in a bid to dig through the rubble.
By Sunday morning, the LASEMA Permanent Secretary, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, revealed that a total of 13 adults had been rescued and receiving pre-hospital care while five bodies were recovered, swelling the casualty list to dozens accounted for.
Faces among the rubble
According to Sandra Akin, “The collapse did not discriminate. A couple and their young son were in the restaurant when it happened but unfortunately the man died. He was in the car when the building came down.”
Sandra also pointed to a spot across the pile of twisted steel and broken blocks, where she said a young footballer in the area, who had come to buy food, died instantly, clutching his ATM card—his dreams ending mid-transaction.
In the midst of the tragedy, tales of providence emerged. Saheed, a regular customer who by chance had dashed to the bus stop for a parcel, missed the fatal hour. “By the time I returned, the entire place was in disarray. If I had not gone to the bus stop, I would have been there at the time the building collapsed,” he said, voice trembling.
In Akubueze Executive Bar and Kitchen, the workers, Faith and Lucy, who had been working there for five years, stated that it was an eventful day. “We heard from home because our house is not far from there and we didn’t come to work that day. As soon as I heard it, we came because they are our neighbours. We assisted in the rescue efforts in the little way we could. Four staffers died in the building, while a guy who packed his car to get something came back to find his car destroyed,” they said.
Government and experts react
In the aftermath, finger-pointing began. The Lagos State’s Materials Testing Laboratory General Manager, Engineer Olayinka Abdul, laid blame squarely on lax compliance. “This disaster would have been prevented if rigorous materials testing were adhered to,” he stated, urging residents to conduct regular assessments of standing buildings.
Meanwhile, the state government cited non-compliance with approved construction plans and unregulated use of substandard materials as root causes.
At the site, Commissioner of Police Olohundare Moshood Jimoh vowed a thorough investigation, assuring residents that “the names of the owners and managers of the property were known, confirming that construction work was ongoing at the time of the collapse.
Shortly thereafter, Information and Strategy Commissioner Gbenga Omotoso echoed the promise of accountability: “There is a procedure if there is any building collapse. The state government will find out how it happened. Naturally, the law will take its course — the owner of the building will face the law.” He also stressed the need for systemic enforcement of safety standards.
A pattern of neglect
The Ojodu-Berger collapse is not an isolated event but part of a troubling national trend. A recent report by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild catalogued 640 recorded incidents between October 1974 to January 2025, with Lagos State alone accounting for 55.15 per cent – a figure significantly higher than all other states put together. The report added that, “However, despite the COVID lockdown in 2020, there were still 45 recorded collapses, with Lagos accounting for 18 (40 per cent) of those incidents. The year 2022 saw the highest number of collapses, with 62 nationwide, and Lagos again having the highest share of 20 (32 per cent) incidents. In 2023, 52 collapses were recorded nationwide, with Lagos contributing 17 (33 per cent).
That grim tally includes the harrowing four-storey disaster at Iga Iduganran Street near the Oba of Lagos’ palace in May 2024, and the tragic 21-storey Ikoyi collapse on November 1, 2021, which claimed fifty-two lives. In many instances, professional ineptitude—excessive loading, faulty designs, poor workmanship—and regulatory inertia have conspired to turn buildings into death traps.
According to Ben Odinaka, a patron of Akubueze Executive Bar and Kitchen, using 16mm to build a house is very dangerous. “Why as an engineer or owner of a project will you use 16mm and expect it to stand? It won’t. And again what really brought Equal-Right Restaurant down is that water had entered the pillar and they used 16mm, which is very dangerous to the building. You shouldn’t expect it to stand. I am surprised it stood for such a long time,” he echoed.
Calls for reform and vigilance
Architect Otunba Mobolaji Falase, speaking from the United Kingdom, highlighted the critical role of rigorous material testing and professional development. “Every batch of concrete used in construction undergoes testing in the UK,” he explained, urging Nigeria to adopt similar standards and invest in training artisans to curb wastage and quackery. He further advocated for compulsory continuous professional development for engineers and architects, mirroring British practice.
At the policy level, the Lagos State Government has partnered with development think-tanks, the Policy Innovation Centre, BiNTA Fellowship, Nigerian Economic Summit Group and Integrity Organisation to apply behavioural insights toward ethical compliance in construction.
Olalekan Shodeinde, Permanent Secretary of the Office of Urban Development, described the initiative as a proactive measure “to create environments that encourage ethical choices, enhance transparency, and strengthen accountability”.
A community’s resolve
With the debris and search still on going, the scars of the collapse lingers. Residents still looking and helping in the hope to find another victim have renewed calls for stricter enforcement of building codes. Barricades still flank Oremeta Street, a silent testament to the morning when concrete betrayed its own weight.
For many in Ojodu-Berger, the collapse served as both a wake-up call and a catalyst for change. Chairman of the All Ojodu Communities Development Association, Alhaji Abdulganiu Sani, has pledged to strengthen local monitoring, to ensure that no other building stands neglected.
“If LASBCA had done its job and marked the building for demolition, this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
