The Lagos State government on Thursday confirmed the recovery of a total of 32 bodies from the rubble of the 21-storey building that collapsed on Gerard road, Ikoyi, on Monday.
Among the bodies recovered on Thursday afternoon was that of Femi Osibona, CEO of Fourscore Heights Limited, developers of the ill-fated building.
The number of victims rescued alive from rubble still stood at nine, as of yesterday. Three of the rescued victims, BusinessDay gathered, have been discharged, while six are still receiving medical attention in a hospital, with the Lagos State government picking up the bill.
On his third visit to the site on Thursday, the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, expressed satisfaction with the rescue operation and commended the first responders for their efforts. He also met with some of the distressed family members at the site and gave words of encouragement.
The actual number of persons trapped in the collapsed 21-storey building remains unclear, but 32 fatalities have been recorded, the governor confirmed.
Sanwo-Olu, while giving an update to the press, disclosed that family members had submitted 19 names of those still missing, saying the ongoing corona inquest on the bodies evacuated from the site was expected to be concluded Friday, November 5, after which families would be invited to identify them.
“On Wednesday, we opened a register for people that have missing persons or loved ones whom they believed must have been at the site before the collapse. As I speak here, it is only 19 names of missing persons that have been registered. Some of them have pictures, others do not. This list would help us to get information on manifest of those at the site.
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“We are conducting a corona inquest on the bodies and by Friday, we hope the exercise would have been concluded. That is the deadline we gave to the corona, so that the families can come and identify the bodies recovered so far.”
The governor also visited Lagos Island General Hospital where survivors of the building collapse are being given medical attention.
One of the nine people rescued alive, Sanwo-Olu said, has been moved to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja for advanced medical examination, but he is not in a life-threatening situation. Three survivors were discharged two days ago.
The governor said he had ordered structural integrity test on two high-rise structures in the premises where the 21-storey collapsed. The action, he said, is necessary to safeguard the lives of emergency workers on the rescue operation.
Sanwo-Olu appealed to journalists covering the incident on speculative reporting and sensationalism, asking them to confirm any unclear details about the search and rescue operation from the official channel of communication. The governor was reacting to inconsistent figures of fatality being spread by the media.
