The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, has said the building which collapsed in the Ikoyi area of the state on Monday had been sealed for four months.
Hamzat who paid a visit to the scene of the incident on Tuesday said it was shut down from July to November.
He also stated that two more survivors have been rescued while the remains of 10 people have recovered from the rubble of the collapsed building.
He said the two survivors who were rescued and currently being treated at a hospital gave conflicting figures concerning the people who were inside the building before the 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 the 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.”
Prowess Engineering Limited, the company that began the construction of the building withdrew from the project in February 2020. The company withdrew its services on grounds that it no longer shared the same vision with its client believed to be Fourscore Heights Limited as addressed in a letter confirmed by the Managing Director, Muritala Olawale.
Prowess Engineering Limited, which had constructed two other buildings for its client, said it couldn’t guarantee the integrity of the third (collapsed building) from anything above the fourth floor.