Lagos Govt Orders Probe Over Building Collapse, Police Arrest Engineer

The Lagos State Government has ordered a probe of the collapsed structure that killed two persons, including a minor, around Lady Lark, in the Bariga area of the state.

It was gathered that the victims, Ayo and Tosin, alongside Ayo’s 32 year-old mother, identified simply as Funmi, were sleeping in their apartment when the tank’s scaffolding of a two-storey building under renovation in the area caved in and landed on their bungalow.

A neighbour, Segun Ogunbanjo, said as the scaffolding landed on the bungalow, it damaged the building, adding that the iron rod and the bricks of the building killed Ayo and Tosin.

He said, “The incident happened around 8:30pm when the woman was in the room with her child and her brother. I was the one who took her to Lady Lark Medical Centre for first aid before she was transferred to the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos, because she sustained fracture.

“Ayo is about 12-years-old while Tosin was a graduate who came to stay with his sister in Lagos to search for job. The scaffolding that collapsed carried three tanks and each of the tanks contained 2000 litres when it fell.”

Another neighbour, Shola Lawrence, whose room was partly damaged by the impact of the collapsed structure, said he escaped death by a whisker.

“I feel lucky to be alive because my room was beside Mama Ayo’s room. I was inside with my wife and kids when I heard a loud bang, and I quickly rushed out only to see that the scaffolding pillar behind our building had collapsed on my neighbour’s flat.

“We had to look for a sledge hammer to start breaking the bricks. We saw the woman with a broken arm and leg and we evacuated her. But there was nothing we could do for the two children as it was very difficult to recover their mangled bodies,” Lawrence said.

The General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Gbolahan Oki, who visited the scene, said the agency had sealed off the building under renovation, adding that an investigation to unravel the cause of the incident had commenced.

He said, “We have been saying it, if you see something, say something; it is very important. We are here now asking who and who are the people building, even people that are here cannot identify the person in charge of the building.”

Contacted, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, said the owner of the property would be prosecuted.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, when contacted, said, “The engineer in charge of the building has been arrested, and investigation is ongoing.”