By Babs Oyetoro, Seyi Odewale, Olusegun Olanrewaju and Francis Ajuonuma
As the rescue operation enters the fourth day, one of the supervisors in the site, (name withheld), has given a likely revelation as to what led to the collapse of the Ikoyi 21-storey building on Monday.
While not pre-empting information into the real cause of the Monday disaster as the Lagos State government has instituted a probe panel, the worker, who was supervising 10 masons working in the site on that day, told ThisNigeria in an exclusive interview that corrective actions were ongoing on five defective structural columns (also known as pillars) when the building collapsed suddenly.
He revealed that a caterpillar operator was assigned the responsibility to chisel the defective pillars earmarked for repair.
“Honestly, the pillars were in bad condition and it called for urgent attention. We have had cause to complain to the owner of the building, Mr. Femi Osibona, who assured us that there was no cause for fear.
“Besides, if you are climbing the staircase or you drop something on any of the floors upstairs there was always a disturbing vibration indicating that there was a structural defect. The corrective actions were in progress when the building collapsed,” he revealed.
The worker, who escaped death by the stroke of luck, noted that shortly after he came down from the 12th floor to attend to other assignments downstairs that the building started falling like a pack of cards.
He explained that he had 10 workers trapped in the rubble among them were three labourers, two apprentices, and five mansions.
As at the time of filing this report, it was only two of his workers that had been rescued; a boy of 19 who is an apprentice was alive, while a bricklayer was brought out from the rubble dead.
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“It is painful that the site engineer-Mr. Kola and the manager-Miss Nifemi, who was rescued on Tuesday, were already dead. A large number of workers were working on the ground floor are still trapped in the collapsed building”, he revealed.
ThisNigeria learnt that weak foundations; sub-standard building materials; workers mistakes; the load is heavier than expected; and untested strength of a building is among other reasons why buildings collapse.
A Warri-based building engineer, Mr Tega Onah, expressed doubt over the reasons given by the supervisor for the collapse of the building.
Onah said, “A building of that magnitude might have up to 50 columns (pillars). It is rare for an amendment on only five pillars to make it go down. The impact that would have caused the collapse was somewhere else and probable undetected before the collapse. It could be in the foundation.
“However, if there are vibrations on the decking it means that it lacked under reinforcement, there are so many gaps in the beams. When I saw the rubble of the collapsed building, I noticed that there was too much gap.”
Death toll hits 22 as Sanwo-Olu set up probe panel
Meanwhile, rescuers, yesterday recovered 22 dead bodies so far and rescued nine people who survived, but construction workers feared dozens of their colleagues were trapped inside.
One of the rescuers said, “We recovered two male bodies early this morning (Wednesday), bringing the toll to 22.”
This came as the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, set up an Independent Panel of Inquiry on the cause of the 21-storey building collapse in Ikoyi.
Addressing newsmen at the site of the collapsed building, Sanwo-Olu gave the panel a 30-day deadline to submit the report on the findings of the cause(s) of the collapse.
He also said that an executive order would be signed to give legal backing to the Panel of Inquiry set up to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the accident.
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Members of the panel are Toyin Ayinde (Chairman); Ekundayo Onajobi (Secretary); Idris Akintilo; Yinka Ogundairo; Godfrey. O. Godfrey and Mrs Bunmi Ibrahim.
According to him, the terms of reference for the Independent Inquiry Panel will be to determine the causes of the collapse of the building under construction.
“Whether they were in full compliance with physical planning and building material laws of the state; to determine whether there was any supervisory or oversight lapse on the part of regulatory authority in the state.
“The panel is to determine the number of casualty and fatalities, to examine any other matter incidental to any of the terms as stated above, and to make necessary recommendation to guard against the occurrence of such incidents in the state,” he said.
The governor assured that the law would take its full course on whoever was found culpable in the accident.
”It is on record that we asked the General Manager of the Building Control Agency, Architect Oki to proceed on an indefinite suspension.
”You can rest assured that if there are other people that are found in the course of the investigation, everybody will also face the full wrath of the law.
”So, for us to get to the real issue of what had happened, I have set up a high-powered commission of inquiry. It is a strong, professional, investigative panel that consists of everybody from outside of government.
”I will be signing an executive order to give legal backing to their composition so that you can start work immediately and turn out a report not later than 30 days,” he said.
The state government also identified six of the nine survivors rescued from the rubble in the Ikoyi building collapse.
They are Oduntan Timilehin (26); Ahmed Keleku (19, from Cotonou); Sunday Monday (21, suffered left leg fracture); Adeniran Mayowa (37, hip injury); Solagbade Nurudeen (33, pelvic injury); and Waliu Lateef (32).
Sanwo-Olu said that bereaved families would be invited to identify their loved ones, latest by Thursday (today) after autopsies had been conducted on the bodies recovered.
He, however, commended the defence personnel who had been working for the three days running rescuing people from the trapping of the rubble.
He said search and rescue were ongoing and that a website had been designed to track families and identities of the missing and victims.
The governor added that a psychological support corps had been emplaced to provide social counselling and additional information on the victims.
According to him, the job of the psychological Corps consists of water and energy pumping into pipes and allowing for a 30-minutes stoppage to empower the trapped.
He informed that the time frame for the completion of search of rescue had not been determined ‘because it is not a typical search-and-rescue being undertaken by the Lagos State Government also private concerned like giant international construction companies- Julius Berger, China Construction Company and relief agencies like NEMA, multi-sectorial and multi-security agencies are involved’.
Sanwo-Olu admitted that people are angry at the recovery process but noted that some corpses had been recovered through a Systematic Mentz System of identification. Autopsy, he added, had been done on all recovered bodies and taken to the general hospital.
