The recent four-storey building collapse on Lagos Island may have come and gone, but the people count their losses. Aside the confirmed dead, neighbours in the community claim that many more rescued victims are still dying. However, their major fear now is of epidemic, which they say may soon break out if the place is not evacuated. Gboyega Alaka reports.
For Mrs Morili Taiwo, life continues. She cut a little picture of someone very recently bereaved… until one woman, from amongst a cluster of women pointed out the extent of her loss in the four-storey building collapse that occurred a fortnight ago on Massey Street, Lagos Island.
“This woman here lost three ‘children’ in that building collapse,” Mrs. Patricia Abayomi, an elderly woman, who lives next door to the collapsed building announced the moment she sensed that a newspaper man was around.
Indeed, they had become used to journalists snooping around their neighbourhood since that unfortunate incident two Tuesdays ago; and seem ever ready to share their sorrow. They have also learnt to carry it in their strides, as the long faces and the wailing have petered out.
You really wouldn’t know with Mrs Taiwo, but with Mrs Abayomi’s announcement, the cloud suddenly darkened around her and the gloom suddenly returned.
“Three of my children died in that incident,” she affirmed, raising three fingers to indicate. “Two of them, Taiwo Morufu and Ademola Idris, I brought to Lagos from the village to seek greener pastures after graduating from school, while the third, Zainab was a fiancée to Idris, and had come to spend time with her fiancé. The positive part for us is that her parents already knew about the relationship and were fully aware of the visit.”
Mrs Taiwo’s was actually a double loss. She also lost her wares of raw foodstuffs such as garri, elubo (Yam flour), rice, yam and co, which she sold on the ground floor of the collapsed building. They all got buried therein. And she could have been a casualty too. She only escaped because she stepped out a while before the disaster.
Still lamenting her loss, she said, “It is the mast they installed on the roof-top that brought down the building. The building was not under construction. And for your information, it did not collapse; it actually sank. It sank under the weight of the mast.”
Asked who authorised the installation of the mast on the building, Mrs. Taiwo threw back the question, “Who else, if not the owners of the house?”
When asked if the landlord or any of the relatives were around, she said everybody has gone their different ways since the disaster. “It is hard to locate anyone now. Of course the dead are dead, but those alive have sought accommodation with their family members in near and far flung areas. Actually, one of the children of the landlords also died in the building,” she announced, not with excitement.
Fear of epidemic
She revealed that many more people are dying in the hospitals and that the death toll has continued to rise. “Please discountenance the reports that said only eight people died; the figure is higher and we have many more dying in the hospitals. Three days ago, three people died at the General Hospital, Broad Street; another also died just yesterday (Monday); and we have more buried in the debris. What however concerns us more now is for the necessary authorities to come and help us clear the debris. The stench coming out of the debris is very strong and poses great danger to human health. Please tell them that the dead are dead and gone, but our major fear now is of epidemic breakout. They should come and evacuate the place and clear out the rotting corpses buried in the debris.”
She explained that the reason the stench was a bit bearable at the time of this reporter’s visit was because the sun was not yet high up, and stressed that they don’t want to lose any more lives to avoidable epidemic.
As if taking a cue from Mrs. Taiwo, Nusirat Yusuf, who sells food items two blocks from the collapsed building quickly sprang from her seat, exclaiming, “That reminds me, I need to go and get a face mask right away.”
She apparently had been sitting there for so long that her breath no longer picked out the odour.
Mrs. Patricia Abayomi, who lives next door to the collapsed building amplified their fear. “Without doubt, there are more corpses buried in that debris; you can tell from the stench in the air.
“However, that is not to take anything away from the government rescue team. They did well and rescued quite a number of people alive. They even had to break through the walls of rooms in our building, to access and bring out people.” She finished off showing this reporter through her now deserted home.
Cut into two
Gabriel Oluniyi aka Omooseparo, who operates a Christian music shop to the right of the collapsed building however condemned the equipment the government rescue team brought to the scene. He said the equipment were too heavy and rather than save lives, must have crushed more people to death, as it foraged through the debris.
“I actually saw the excavator cut a boy, Ibrahim to two while trying to pick through the rubble. The boy at the time was making a call through to notify people of his whereabout, but the excavator ended everything for him. It was at that point that boys in the area ordered the excavator to stop and resorted to manual effort, and in no time, a boy, Michael, was rescued, after almost twenty hours under the rubble.”
Oluniyi said Michael survived because, according to him, he was trapped under a table, wedged by a big boulder. “But he could have been crushed to death if the big excavator had not been halted.”
“Even before the rescue team came – I must say it took them quite a while to arrive – the boys in the area had rescued quite a good number of people manually.” Oluniyi said.
The mast brought down the building
Oluniyi also stated categorically that the building came down as a result of the vibration of the telecoms mast that was installed on the four-storey building’s penthouse a couple of weeks before.
According to him, the building came down at about 1.30pm. “I was sitting right here and cannot tell exactly what happened, but a lady, Kehinde, whom we fondly call Kenyen, selling right across the road, claimed she saw the mast rise up slightly, and landed back on the roof of the penthouse. She said the building came down the moment the mast landed back on the building.”
According to him, it is possible that the operators might have been testing the mast from somewhere, from the way it vibrated and collapsed the building.
Like Mrs Taiwo, Oluniyi also said the building practically sank into the ground rather than collapsed. Somehow, he said that had its good sides, because it definitely would have collapsed on the building, which housed his own shop and a private health facility. Nevertheless, he did suffer some loss. The impact of the collapsed building collapsed the blind side of his shop, and he was actually seen clearing the debris on the afternoon of this visit.
Oluniyi wondered why they chose a house like that, which was not so strong to mount such a huge mast. “In fact, I have a brother who warned them against mounting a mast on that building; he told them the building wasn’t strong enough for such burden, but you know how it is when you are the only one complaining about something. When he couldn’t get anyone to support him, he gave up and kept his cool.”
He recalled that the issue of the mast also caused a rift between offspring of the landlord and the caretaker to the house, who allegedly permitted the installation of the mast.
“One of the offspring of the landlord, Rotimi, who survived and is now recuperating in the hospital, reportedly took the caretaker to police over this issue, but from what we heard, the DPO at Lion Building took sides with the caretaker. Now we have the result.” He said sarcastically.
Asked if there may still be corpses buried in the debris, as is being alleged by people in the community, Oluniyi said it is possible. He however noted that no one has come forward to claim that their persons were missing. He only spoke of a missing two-year-old. The baby, he said, was one of the five people in the food (amala) joint on the ground floor. The other four, who were adults, were rescued.”
Oluniyi also has a grouse with the new Lagos Island Local Council Development Area, Comrade Kamal Bashua, whom he said came to the site the very day he was sworn in, but has not visited since then. He believes the chairman should be more on ground and empathetic.
Saved by providence
In the background of the building housing Oluniyi’s shop came endless songs of praise; this prompted this reporter to ask if the building also housed a church, aside the hospital; but he answered in the negative. According to him, that is how the women sing and praise God in the hospital on a regular basis.
As a follow up, he said, “What if I tell you that it is those praises and prayers that prevented the building from collapsing on our own building? That is the mighty hand of God. I believe in miracle. In fact, there was a very sick man, who hadn’t gone out of the collapsed building for weeks, but would you believe that minutes before the collapse, his alfa (Muslim cleric), who had been praying for him, called him and told him to go out and take fresh air. Even when he claimed he was too weak, the alfa insisted until he obliged him.” Oluniyi revealed.
This story bears a semblance to that of Lateef Banuso (Baba Ibeji), who escaped the collapse with his wife and all children and now squats on nearby Freeman Street. He claimed that he could not sleep the night before the collapse and eventually resorted to praying.
“I prayed all night. In the morning, I sent all my children out to go to lesson with their mother, who is a teacher, so I could get some rest. But somehow, I still couldn’t get good sleep. Later I started calling to chat up my friends. But when I scrolled to Jare’s name, something told me to get up and go see him. From there, I came to Freeman Street and immediately headed for the mosque to observe my afternoon prayer. It was after that that a call came in and Jare’s brother was asking where I was. When I told him, he heaved a sigh of relief and told me that our house had collapsed and that they were afraid I was trapped in there.
“Thereafter I called my wife to confirm that all the children were with her and when she answered in the affirmative, I told her to remain there and that we no longer had a house to return to.”
Like several other people, Banuso also placed the blame of the collapse on the mast. According to him, the house, which was a combination of flats and rooming apartment never showed any sign of imminent collapse and claimed that he didn’t even know when the mast was installed. “It was as if it was placed there overnight.”
He also hinted on a possible conspiracy theory to cover up on the mast, claiming that the government rescue team seemed too eager to compress it, which would made it pale into insignificance.
He lamented the avoidable loss of lives. Like Mrs Taiwo and others, he also believes more corpses are still trapped in the debris and appealed to the relevant authorities to come and clear out the place. To back up his claim, Banuso spoke of an Ibo man, Innocent, who sold foodstuffs on the ground floor, who was rescued from the cistern underneath after being submerged. “It was Innocent, who told us that a woman was still in the soak-away. That woman’s baby was rescued alive, but I doubt if the she was that Lucky.”
The Nation later learnt from Mrs. Taiwo and Mrs. Abayomi that Innocent suffered a broken leg and was recuperating in a hospital.
Even as Banuso claimed that it was hard for all neighbours to know each other due to the population and complexity of the 23-year old building, he nevertheless lamented the death of Idris, the young man who got killed along with his visiting fiancee. He only related with Idris a couple of times, but noted his selflessness and commitment to issues in the house.
He recalled how Idris’ fiancée’s mother wept bitterly during the excavation. “The woman wept bitterly and blamed herself for sending her daughter to her death. She said her daughter didn’t want to come when Idris invited her to come over, and that she was the one, who encouraged her to accede to the request.”
We’re working on evacuating the debris – Bashua
Following complaints by the people, The Nation visited the chairman of Lagos Island Local Council Development Area, Comrade Kamal Bashua at his office on Broad Street.
Bashua in his response, however said it is not his physical appearance at the scene of the incident that matters, but the effort he and his team are making.
“I’m glad they acknowledged that I have visited the place. That shows that we are not distant from them and actually empathise with them on the issue. But they really need to understand that it is not my physical presence that matters but what we are doing.” Bashua said.
“We are aware of the danger the incident has created; we also cannot rule out the fact that decomposing bodies may still be in the debris, and that is why we have fumigated the place twice. The first time was at the instance of the House of Assembly member representing Lagos Island Constituency II, Honourable Shola Giwa; the second time was at the instance of the honourable Commissioner for Health, Mr Jide Idris. The commissioner gave express directive that the place be fumigated to forestall any kind of epidemic that may arise from the incident.”
” We have also contacted the electric company to move in and reinstall the pole that fell as a result of the collapse and fix the cables, so that power could be restored in the area. We are also making efforts to see to the evacuation of the debris ; so you can see that it’s not about my physical presence there.”
About the mast, the chairman said an inventory is being taken within the council, with a view to ascertaining the viability of all such masts. “A three-man committee has been set up to go round, take inventory and carry out assessments, so that such disaster does not happen again.”
