The cause of the collapse could not be ascertained as at press time, but a member of the church, who craved anonymity, told Saturday Sun that the structure was a six-storey building used as a guest house, where some foreigners and other well-to-do Nigerians, who come to the church for prayers and other spiritual matters usually lodge. The ground floor, he said, served as a restaurant.
According to the source, it was a six-storey building but the General Overseer of the church, Prophet T. B. Joshua, saw the need to expand it by adding another floor to the existing structure, stressing that the on-going construction could have been responsible for the collapse of the building built on a marshy land.
The first earth-moving equipment arrived the scene at about 4pm for rescue operation, followed by a giant crane, which arrived 15 minutes after. By 5.20pm, two trailers ferrying two bulldozers, drove into the compound to begin full rescue operation.
Five ambulance vans were also seen driving into the compound by 5.25pm.
“As the earth-moving equipment have started arriving, then the real job has started for us. For now, it is hard because most of the victims are still trapped under the debris of the building”, a Red Cross official stated.
Though there were speculations that about 50 persons died in the incident, spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency, South West zone, Ibrahim Farinloye, however, confirmed only three persons died with those injured already rescued and moved to the state General Hospitals in Isolo and Igando.
Fierce looking policemen and youths of the church, who were so hostile, barricaded the gate to the church and didn’t allow anyone not very familiar to them to enter the compound. Occasionally, the police would shoot into the air to scare and ward off the surging crowd that wanted to enter the compound to see the collapsed building.
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3 die, others injured as Synagogue church building collapses |
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