THE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has disclosed that eight persons were rescued from the building that collapsed in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Thursday, October 31.
NEMA said the rescue operation was in collaboration with other stakeholders.
According to the agency, casualties were recorded in the Jegede area of the state capital.
The southwest zonal coordinator of NEMA, Kadiri Olanrewaju, disclosed this to The ICIR in a telephone conversation on Friday, November 1.
He said the agency received a distress alert about the incident on Thursday and moved in swiftly. He also confirmed that ten people died in the incident.
“These victims were carried to the Mercyland clinic and maternity centre for immediate medical care. Unfortunately, ten persons lost their lives in the incident,” Olanrewaju said.
He added that three of the victims who were hospitalised will be discharged from the hospital on Friday.
The ICIR reported that at least 10 people were killed in the building that collapsed in Ibadan on Thursday morning.
The Oyo State Fire Services Agency confirmed the tragedy and said seven people were rescued alive from the incident that occurred at 2:am. A statement issued by the Fire Service said rescue efforts were ongoing.
It remained unclear when filing this report if more people were still trapped in the rubbles.
The commissioner for lands, housing, and urban development in Oyo State, Williams Akin-Funmilayo who reacted to the building collapse said the state government ‘would conduct integrity text on the neighbouring buildings to ascertain the main cause of the collapse.
“Many of the buildings around are distressed and don’t have building approvals. It is for us to be proactive as we are set to conduct integrity tests on the buildings around and within the suburb of the state,” he said.
The ICIR reports that building collapses have been recurring across Nigeria, especially in the country’s capital, Abuja (in the north-central) and the southern part of the country.
On Sunday, October 26, this organisation reported how many people were trapped in a building that collapsed in the Sabon-Lugbe area of the nation’s capital.
The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, had ordered the demolition of some illegal structures in the area.
It would be noted that the collapsed building was among those earlier touched by bulldozers, and it caved in when scavengers attempted to steal iron from one of its pillars.
A reporter with the ICIR
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