No fewer than 20 people have been confirmed dead in the 21-storey building that collapsed on Monday on Gerrard Road, in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.
The building crumbled around 2 pm when workers were on the site.
Recall that we had reported that 10 people were feared dead when the incident happened, as many others were still trapped in the rubble, including the Managing Director, Fourscore Heights Limited, Mr Femi Osibona, who owned the building.
The South-West Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, on Tuesday, said a total of 20 bodies, including that of Osibona’s personal assistant, had been recovered.
The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, around 8 pm on Tuesday, also confirmed that 20 corpses had been recovered.
Nine people were said to have been rescued alive.
Our correspondents learnt that three of the rescued victims had been released to their families, while others were being treated at the Lagos Island General Hospital, Marina.
It was, however, observed as agitated family members of some of the victims protested against what they described as the slow pace of work at the scene.
The aggrieved families and sympathisers urged emergency management workers to allow members of the public to help in the recovery process to increase the chances of saving more lives.
They claimed that they were not allowed to identify the bodies recovered to know if their loved ones had been found or were still trapped in the rubble.
One of our correspondents noted that during the protest, 10 men were selected to enter the premises to assist the responders.
They were later chased out, an action that aggravated the crowd.
It was learnt that a member of the National Youth Service Corps, identified only as Zainab, was among those trapped in the rubble.
Her family members, who refused to speak to journalists, were seen bemoaning their fate.
Journalists were also not allowed to enter the premises of the collapsed building.
