Collapsed Lagos Mall: Death toll rises to five

Collapsed Lagos Mall: Death toll rises to
five
on november 06, 2013 at 1:09 am in news
BY MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO
LAGOS — The Search and Rescue team at the five-
storey twin-shopping mall under-construction
which collapsed, Monday, at 9, Muri Okunola Street,
Eti-Osa Local Government, has completed its job at
the collapsed site.
The rescue agencies were made up of officials of
the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency,
LASEMA, Red Cross, officers of the Nigeria Police
Force, Maroko Division and the Nigerian Security
and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC.
The collapsed shopping mall
The exercise was completed at 6:45 pm, yesterday,
with the recovery of the last trapped victim,
identified as Mr. Dele Oyedele, the architect of the
mall.
During the search and rescue operation, the
uncompleted mall was levelled.
Head of Operations, LASEMA, Mr. Olusegun
Magnus-Davies and Director, Lagos State Fire
Service, Rasak Fadipe, who both confirmed the
recovery in separate interviews with Vanguard, said
the last victim had been recovered.
According to them, “he is the site architect and his
name is Dele Oyedele. His corpse was recovered
under the rubble.”
The relatives of the deceased present at the scene,
declined request for interview.
Vanguard further gathered that the building caved in
when the workers were trying to cast  the decking
to join both malls on the fifth floor.
One of the construction workers, identified as
Abdullahi, who escaped unhurt, said he left the site
at 3:55 pm to observe his prayers.
According to him, “After observing my prayer at
about 4:05 pm, I ran out of the mosque to join my
co-workers to complete the construction work.
While still standing at the entrance of the building,
the structure collapsed. It was like watching a
Hollywood movi
5 die, 25 rescued
General Manager of LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-
Osanyintolu, said the rescue officials worked
through the night to rescue the trapped workers.
Oke-Osanyintolu added that his men had left the
Great Nigeria House fire disaster scene to
concentrate on rescuing those still trapped at the
collapsed shopping complex.
According to him, “at least 25 people have been
rescued but unfortunately we recovered five dead
bodies.”
Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe,
stated that the emergency officials in the state
responded promptly by arriving the scene of on
time.