One week after a 21-storey building collapsed on Gerrard Road, in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State, recovery operation by rescue agencies has continued.
It was obserced that responders were already concluding their operation as the death toll increased to 44 on Sunday.
Recall that the 21-storey building collapsed last Monday around 2pm.
The building, owned by Fourscore Heights Limited, trapped over 50 persons, including the firm’s Managing Director, Femi Osibona; his friend, a United States of America-based Nigerian businessman, Wale Bob-Oseni; his personal assistant, Oyinye Enekwe, and clients.
Other deceased persons included a member of the National Youth Service Corps, identified only as Oyindamola; an aluminium fabricator, Kenneth Otu; an engineer and pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Living Water Parish, Ibafo, Ogun State, Ola Ogunfunwa, among others.
Since the incident happened, family members of victims and sympathisers had thronged the area daily, hoping to see their loved ones alive, while some lamented that they were not allowed to identify their loved ones.
The affected families were, however, granted access on Saturday to find their loved ones among the corpses recovered and deposited in the Lagos Mainland Hospital morgue.
The state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Saturday around 6pm, said 42 bodies had been recovered so far from the rubble.
A source told our correspondent on Sunday that two more bodies were recovered from the rubble, which increased the death toll to 44.
The source said one of the bodies was recovered around 8pm on Saturday, while the other body was recovered around midnight.
“The recovery operation is still ongoing but should end by Monday morning. The work is about two per cent to completion,” the source added.
