Death toll from the collapsed building in Ikoyi has increased to 38, as two more bodies was pulled out by the rescue team on Thursday afternoon, according to Lagos State Emergency Management Agency.
Recall that the building located at 20 Gerrard Road collapsed around 2:00 p.m. on Monday while workers were working at the site.
The agency has now said that two males bodies were recovered from the rubbles, making the number of bodies so far recovered 38 while 9 persons were taken out alive.
“35 males and 3 females, 1 female survivor and 8 male survivor,” LASEMA stated in its update.
Earlier, the National Emergency Management Agency said that 36 bodies has been recovered under the rubble as at Thursday morning.
“So far, 36 people — 33 males and three female — have been confirmed dead, while there were nine survivors”, said the southwest coordinator of National Emergency Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye.
During his visit to the scene on Wednesday, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said that the survivors are still in the hospital receiving medical treatment.
He said that a six-member panel of enquiry will be set up to investigate the cause of the building collapse.
Sanwo-Olu expressed;
I have set up a high-powered commission of inquiry consisting of five members who are top professionals in the country.
Members of the panel include President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Tayo Ayinde; a foremost structural engineer, Akintilo Idris Adeleke; a partner with a leading architectural firm, Yinka Ogundairo; a foremost builder in the country, Godfrey O. Godfrey, and a lawyer and property expert, Mrs Bunmi Ibrahim. The secretary of the panel is a lawyer, Ekundayo Onajobi.
The members, according to him, are experts who have no relationship with the government and are drawn from various professional bodies.
Noting that the panel would be given about a month to conclude its assignment, Sanwo-Olu stated that the government would punish anyone found culpable.
