A distressed three-storey building, which collapsed in the Ebute Metta area of Lagos State, has claimed the lives of 10 tenants, including a member of the National Youth Service Corps, identified only as Oluwakemi.

No fewer than 24 occupants were also injured in the tragic incident, which happened on Sunday.

While some occupants were lucky enough to navigate their way out of the collapsed structure, others were trapped beneath the rubble.

Before the arrival of emergency responders, some members of the community searched the rubble and rescued the trapped victims.

One of the survivors, Isaac Irhrhi, who escaped death by a whisker, said he came out with members of his family.

He said, “I am speechless; I give glory to God for being alive. Friends, children, mothers have died, but my family and I came out alive. When the building collapsed, it sounded like thunder as everything went down.

“My flat is on the last floor, so I was able to break the ceiling to create a way to see outside. My wife, child and neighbours were calling me, so I directed them to where I was and started pulling them out. Aside from my wife and child, I was able to pull two neighbours out of the rubble.”

A mother of two, Kehinde Enifeni, a tenant in a house beside the collapsed building, said the structure fell and blocked the entrance to her flat, adding that she and her children escaped by breaking the window.

She said, “I was shocked when I heard the noise, but as I attempted opening the door, I couldn’t. I broke our fence and the structure fell on our compound and blocked our entrance, including the window of my parlour.

“I began crying; my husband started shouting my name and saying I should rush into the room. I quickly rushed there, got a knife, cut the net of the window in the room, but the window had burglary-proof bars.

Another resident, Lanre Shobaloju, said the tragedy occurred due to government negligence, lamenting that the building had been in a bad condition for years.

He said, “The government has been sealing and unsealing the place for more than four times. The last result, which is the collapse, is what they wanted and the building has killed people, including youths.

“One of my agents, Toheeb, lost his life. A young boy, Chinonso, also lost his life; Khalid, who was aspiring to go to university, also lost his life. LASBCA was here to seal the place and it is surprising that the agency still allowed people to reside in the building.

“There is a chance that the agency’s officials were bribed. The tragedy should have been averted if the tenants had been evacuated as I have been complaining that all the pillars and decking of the building had become weak.

“The house was built by a developer about 22 years ago and from what we gathered, the developer would have handed over the building to its owners on May 31 until it collapsed yesterday.”

Emergency responders, including the National Emergency Management Agency, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services, Lagos State Building Control Agency, police, and Red Cross were sighted at the scene of the incident on Monday.

Our correspondent observed as two excavators driven by emergency officials made attempts to locate other trapped victims.

As the excavators dug deeper and pierced through concrete and iron rods, the lifeless bodies of 10 occupants, including children, were recovered and placed in body bags.

A crowd of onlookers and sympathisers were seen crying profusely as emergency officials carried the corpses in body bags into vehicles for onward transfer to a mortuary.

A trader in one of the shops in the affected building, Francis Egbuonu, while recounting his losses, said valuables amounting to N10m were lost to the incident.

He said, “I took delivery of new goods on Saturday and deposited them there to take to another location on Monday, but the building collapsed on Sunday and destroyed most of my goods valued at about N10m.”

The Punch