Obafemi Hamzat, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, has stated that the building that collapsed in the state’s Ikoyi neighbourhood on Monday had been sealed for four months.
Hamzat, who visited the place of the tragedy on Tuesday, stated that it was closed from July to November.
He also reported that two additional survivors had been rescued and that the bodies of ten individuals had been discovered from the wreckage of the fallen building.
He stated that the two survivors who were rescued and are presently being treated at a hospital provided inconsistent statistics of the number of individuals that were inside the building before its collapse.
According to him, “This is now a search and rescue operation and our mission is to get people out of here. This morning we took out two people and they are doing well in the hospital. Totally we’ve taken nine people out and they are in the hospital and some have been discharged and we’ve sadly taken out 10 dead bodies
“The operation as you can see is going on and we will not leave until we are able to account for everybody. We are responsible for the people of the state, our focus is on saving lives.
“As a matter of fact, this place was sealed for about four months sometime last year from July to November because our agency came in to do a structural test and saw some anomalies and shut it down and said those things should be corrected.
“The other two buildings will also be audited in terms of integrity test and of course if we see anything, appropriate actions will be taken. They were making corrective actions when this happened. At the time this happened, they were not really constructing but investigations later will show what really happened.
“This particular building that collapsed was approved for 21 floors three years ago not 15 floors, it’s the construction that failed apparently.”