Nollywood actress denies alleged link to collapsed Lagos building

According to residents of the area, the building at 13, Wilson Mba Street, Arowojobe Estate came down around 1 am.

Mrs Yusuf, whose house is next to the building, said the collapse sounded like thunder and terrified her children.

By noon, emergency service workers had rescued five people alive and recovered five dead.

Officials could not confirm to Pulse Nigeria the actual number of people who passed the night inside the building, but eyewitnesses put the figure around 20 people, many of them were involved in the construction work.

Multiple residents of the area who spoke to Pulse alleged that the building belonged to a Nollywood actress, Aisha Lawal. Some of them claimed they had seen her at the site giving instructions to the engineer in charge of the construction of the property.

A neighbour, who introduced himself simply as Adebayo, said he was sure the collapsed building belonged to the actress.

“I was unaware of the collapse until this morning. I did not even hear people crying out for help until my wife told me this morning that she saw a demolition vehicle on the street to demolish a building. I asked if it was the house of the actress and she said yes.

“The building belongs to Aisha Lawal. I have seen her (here) twice and with the information on the ground, the building belongs to her,” he said.

Ogbonnaya Boniface, another resident of the estate, also confirmed seeing the actress at the site.

The resident further claimed that the building construction started three months ago, implying that work was rushed. “They were rushing the building as if something else was there,” he said.

When Pulse reached out to Lawal about the claims of involvement with the building, she said, “I don’t own the building and I do not know anything about it. The building is not mine if that’s what you want to confirm.”

Search and rescue continues

Olatunde Akinsanya, the Director Operations/Maintenance of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), said those rescued alive have been taken to the Gbagada General Hospital, while three bodies were moved to the mortuary.

He said the Lagos State Government would follow the standard procedure in the identification of the bodies before they are released to their families.

“There are standard procedures, which is a template for all respondants whether you’re from National Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, Lagos State Fire Service, LASAMBUS, we have a procedure. At the scene of the incident where we recover the body, we ask the police and the people around to identify them. Once we can see any of the members of the family, they’ll have to do a documentation process, which will facilitate the release of the corpse,” he said.

Asked if the owner of the collapsed building had been identified, Akinsanya said, “I don’t know about it.”

The LASEMA official also said he can’t ascertain the number of victims yet because squatters reportedly share the space with site workers in the uncompleted building.

“When we saw one of the dead victims, one of the ones that were rescued alive said he didn’t know him. He could not identify him. That is one of the shortfalls of a roll call at the scene of this incident. A lot of people gatecrashed in an uncompleted building to sleep,” he stated.

Residents and eyewitnesses also confirmed that other people join site workers to spend their nights inside the building. A five-year-old girl and her mother were sleeping inside the building when it collapsed, but were rescued alive before emergency workers arrived.

Response time

Akinsanya said all emergency response agencies in Lagos sprung to action after they received a distress call about the collapse. According to him, the agencies arrived at the scene almost at the same time and commenced rescue operations immediately.

But Emmanuel, a resident who lives two houses away from the collapsed building, claimed there was some delay in response time because the agencies’ vehicles could not access the estate through its main gate.

“I stepped out, I knew something was wrong, then I heard people crying, calling for help, then I called 112 and 767. I believe other neighbours called after mine, and they came around 3 am.

“I thought they had issues with the estate security, they could not come in through the estate’s main gate, their vehicles could not ply the makeshift bridge, and they had to go through Ajao Estate, so that took them time and that affected the response time,” he said.

Emmanuel further claimed he noticed the defect in the building before it collapsed but didn’t report it because he was sure the government knew about it.

“I noticed the defect in the building. The building is already tilted to the front. I am sure for them to have gotten to that stage, the building agency must have approved it. I am not an engineer, the Lagos State Building Control Agency must have approved it,” the neighbour noted.

During a brief visit to the site, the General Manager of Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Gbolahan Owodunni Oki, said the Babajide Sanwo-Olu government is making moves to professionalise building constructions in the state.

He said the state government will start sealing properties that are not built by professionals.

“The governor does not want this. He wants construction in Lagos State to be extremely professionalised. We don’t have to be sentimental about it, if you’re not professional, you’re not professional and it’s high time we sealed up properties even if it is a bungalow if all the professionals are not involved in its construction, we seal it up,” the LASBCA boss said.

The tragedy of Thursday’s building collapse has attracted attention to the area, and government officials have already started conducting integrity tests on surrounding buildings.

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Kelle Repass

Update: 2024-08-19

PicoZ