Olanrewaju and Quadri Akanbi
Following the collapse of a seven-storey building late Wednesday on Banana Island in Ikoyi, Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State, the state government yesterday confirmed that it would conduct integrity tests on buildings close to the collapsed structure.
Authorities said the move was to defuse tension surrounding the collapse, especially the conduct of an integrity test to confront the problem of another building collapse.
However, a near-bloody scene was yesterday averted in Ikoyi as journalists battled security agents, site officials, and firefighters in a street engagement over the inspection of a building site that took place on Banana Island on Wednesday evening.
But that was not to take the shine off the efforts of the Lagos State as the Special on Special Duties to the state governor, Mobolaji Ogunlende, said, “We shall conduct an integrity test on the remaining three-unit buildings. For now, the project cannot continue until a thorough investigation and integrity test is carried out.”
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But the Chief Security Officer to the contractor, Anthony Onah Idagu dismissed with a wave of hands the claims that the company did not get approval for the project saying his company is law-abiding and will not embark on such a project without doing the necessary things.
However, the Special Adviser to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Special Duties reaffirmed that ‘between 7 to 9’ people had been rescued from the sorrow site by operatives of Lagos State Bus Ambulance Services (LASAMBUS), and taken to unnamed hospitals in the state.
He said the victims were treated for ‘minor wounds’, adding that investigations into the cause of the mishap were ongoing.
But pressed further by reporters who fought hard to gain entrance into the deserted premises, the adviser admitted that some unknown number of persons could have been trapped in the collapsed structure.
A brother to the owner of the property, which is known in the neighbourhood as a ‘small estate’ located in Banana Island was also said to have come to the premises that day.
Reporters asked for a manifest of those present at the site. The special adviser directed them to another state official.
State officials have informed that a ‘thorough probe’ is ongoing into the building collapse, while an integrity test is also being conducted.
It was a hell of a day for reporters who had congregated in the vicinity for hours, waiting for a promised press conference, to hear further news, apart from the government statement which had earlier been reported in the day as having been rescued or treated from the site.
Some reporters positioned themselves for a fight as a commotion broke loose from gun-cocking and venom-brewing policemen, amid fears that they could release volleys.
The Permanent Secretary of the State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEMA), however, attributed the cause of the clash to ‘lack of permit’.
At the end of the day, the permit was not given.
“In my entire career, I have not seen where newsmen were forcibly disallowed from independently verifying a subject of public inquiry like this one,” a reporter said.
A security guard in the neighbourhood narrated that the incident happened at about 6pm on Wednesday when the middle-located building sandwiched with two others of equal storey ‘fell like a pack of cards’.
