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.

Confirming the development, a senior policeman in the state, said the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, and other senior policemen in the state were waiting to receive the IGP at the airport in Ikeja.

“The IGP is coming to Lagos to visit the scene of the collapsed building in Ikoyi. The IGP is already airborne and could land any moment from now,” the source said

The remains of no fewer than 10 persons were recovered from the rubble of the 21-storey building that collapsed on Monday.

A survivor of the incident, Gabriel Bassey, had said that about 50 persons were trapped in the rubble of the collapsed structure.

Efforts are still ongoing to search and rescue some of the trapped victims.