Ibrahim Farinloye, the acting coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said that the major problem with the rescue and search mission is their inability to lift pillars or columns in the rubble.
He said each time an attempt is made to a column, it breaks, hampering the efforts of the rescue team.
“The real problem is the building, the columns. We are supposed to be able to lift columns or pillars up, but any attempt to lift, they break,” he said.
Farinloye said this while explaining the processes involved in the mission after a woman suspected to be related to a victim condemned the approach adopted in the rescue and search mission.
The woman said if they continued in that manner, more survivors, (if any) could die.
In response to this, Farinloye said the incident is not as difficult as they had it with Synagogue Church because of the information they are getting about where people are located in the flotsam.
Read also: Collapsed building: Experts’ views
“We’re having information, this is where people are located, this is where people are located unlike the previous one. So there’s nothing much.
“But the real problem was the building, the columns. We are supposed to be able to lift columns or pillars up, but any attempt to lift, they break.
“So, if there are spaces between walls before, any effort to lift a slab, it will break down. I am not a standard organization professional but any attempt to lift it up breaks down. So that’s the problem, that’s the major challenge we’re having now,” he explained to reporters.
While this may be passed off as a mere challenge, it could also mean that if there are more survivors trapped in the rubble, they could be killed by the impact of the columns which break at any slight effort to lift or shift.
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