A five-man panel of enquiry has been set up by the Lagos State Government to investigate the remote cause (s) of the collapsed building in Ikoyi area of the State
Members of the panel are, Mr Toyin Ayinde, a town planner, Dr Akintilo Idris, a Structural Engineer, Yinka Ogundairo, an Architect, Godfrey O. Godfrey, a builder and a lawyer, Bunmi Ibrahim, while another Lawyer, Ekundayo Onajobi, will serve as Secretary.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who announced this during his second visit to the site of the collapsed building at No. 20 Gerrard road Ikoyi, this afternoon said the panel has a thirty day term of reference and that he would be signing an executive order to give the panel a legal backing.
“They will investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incident to determine whether there was any supervisory or oversight lapse on the part of the State, and make recommendations on how to guard against future occurrence.” he said as
In addition to the help desk at the site, the Governor said a website http://www.lagosmind.org/help and an email address, help@lagosmind.org had also been created for those with people trapped under the rubbles to get information about them as well as a psychosocial support telephone number,
09090006463
Governor Sanwo-Olu said the State had been finding it difficult to get the complete manifest of workers as the project managers had not come forward and the address of the company is a residential house and nobody was found there.
“Unfortunately, what we have seen in the last 48hours is that we do not have a complete manifest of everybody at the construction site, which is against the law. We have been working without full information about the numbers we are working with. We expect professionally that the contractors to have presented themselves, there is a residential address, but there’s nobody there” The Governor said
Urging families with relatives trapped under the collapsed structure to remain hopeful, the Governor said Oxygen and water are been pumped in from 4 quadrants, while rescue workers stop for 30mins to listen for sound from underneath the rubbles.
According to the Governor, autopsies are been carried out on the bodies recovered from the collapsed building and the identities of the corpses would be ascertained later today or tomorrow
As at past one o clock this afternoon, fatalities from the collapsed building stand at 21 while 9 persons have been rescued from the rubbles of the 21 storey building which came down in the afternoon on Monday this week.
Governor Sanwo-Olu who said contrary to rumours, approval for a 21 storey structure was given to the developer who also has two other 15 storey buildings under construction in the same location, cautioned journalists against sensational reportage and spreading of unsubstantiated information.
forFamilies of Victims Request Expedited Action For Closure
Two people, Mr. Jude Ogochukwu who said his brother is one of those trapped in the building and Mr Abel Godwin who said he came in from Abuja because his 18 year old son is one of those still under the structure requested for early closure.
“We need to know early, we are I lains, we are in serious pains and we need early closure” Mr Ogochukwu said.
“I got to Lagos at 2am today and have been to the IDH and General hospital, but they didn’t allow me to check whether my son is alive or not” Mr Abel Godwin lamented.
The search and rescue operation was still ongoing at the time of filing in this report.
