PUNCH Weeping and gnashing of teeth as another building gives way in Lagos by THOMAS USHIE on Sep 28, 2013 Posted under: Living, ONLINE X-tra • My husband never came back for his meal –Widow • My wife’s certificates are trapped under the rubbles Yet another building gave way in Lagos on Wednesday September 25, taking no fewer than four lives with it. As victims, rescuers and sympathisers swarmed round the rubbles, THOMAS USHIE was there to capture the mood and lamentations. The building at 12 Alli Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, did not just go down. It warned the residents and passersby on several occasions. Not only that; the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), according to a resident of the street, had earlier marked the building for possible demolition and its occupants asked to vacate for safety reason. Some heeded the warning and parked out of the building. But a few who did not have the financial wherewithal stayed put. Yet, other Lagosians who had no place to rest their head at night, according to some residents of the street, took advantage of the free rooms and took possession. Sadly, the Doomsday came. It was Wednesday, September 25, around 10 p.m. The building crumbled like a pack of cards. In a jiffy, four people lay dead, 10 lying critically injured and as at the time of filing in this report, they are receiving treatment at the Island General Hospital. However, according to Shamsudeen Mayode, the casualty would have been more but for the English Capital One Cup fifth round football matches that took place the fateful night. Several young men who where squatting in the collapsed three storey building had gone to watch the matches. “This building that collapsed on the bungalow and ended the lives of four people has been marked for demolition long ago, after a building towards the end of this street collapsed. I don’t know why it was not demolished. People who had no place to lay their head had to sneak into the building to live. Fortunately, there were football matches going on, Liverpool versus Manchester United, Arsenal versus West Brom and others. So many people had gone to watch the marches in viewing centres when the building collapsed. If not for the matches, many people would have been injured and many dead.” Unfortunately for the casualties, they were not the residents of the three storey building which was marked for demolition. They only suffered the proverbial beating meant for the snake which inevitably affected the ground even much more. “The people that died where not living in the three storey building that collapsed. Rather the three storey buildings collapsed on the bungalow and just destroyed innocent people’s lives and properties. The other young man, Ifeanyi, who also died was not living in the building. He came to visit somebody but unfortunately the building collapsed on him and he died. The building collapsed around 10 p.m. on Wednesday and when we heard of it, we rushed down to rescue people long before the other rescue operators came. Regrettably, the police did not allow us to carry out any rescue operation. I was born and bred in this area. I know the residents of this place and they know me and I know them. So, when something bad happens, we try to help because the people we help are part of our community and our lives. But when neighbours came very early to help, the police did not allow us near the scene, maybe, to protect the properties of the casualties from being looted. It was when the rescue team from the Lagos State Government came, that people were allowed in. If the rescue operation was carried out early enough, maybe some of the four people that lost their lives would have been saved,” Shamsudeen told Saturday Mirror. Relieving his anguish and frustration at government’s “negligence” of the collapsed building, one of its occupants, Yusuf Olanipekun, said that the tragedy has rendered him and his pregnant wife homeless while their credentials are still trapped under the rubbles. “The occupants of the the building that collapsed were sometimes ago given notice to quit the property because the building had cracked and faced possible collapse. The remote causes are old age and attendant depreciation. However, the immediate cause of the collapse was the shop owners who came that fateful evening to remove the burglary proofs which they had erected in their shops. So, as they were hitting and shaking it in order to remove it, the building was affected and it caved on the bungalow beside it, where I was living. “There were no real tenants in the three-story building but the bungalow was fully occupied. As the building crashed on the bungalow, lives were lost. Four people were pulled out of the building this morning (on Thursday) dead. One is an old man, the three others are young men of between 28 and 30 years. “All our properties had been destroyed in the collapse. Our electronics and other valuables have been crushed and as you can see, they are in the rubbles. What can we do with them again? We have lost all that we have laboured to own as personal properties since we have been in Lagos. We have to start all over again. It is really pathetic. If the government, after marking the building, did not neglect to carry out the demolition expertly and immediately after due process, what has befallen us would not have. The old man would not have died so miserably in the collapse. The three young men whose lives were cut short, would not have suffered this tragedy. My pregnant wife would not have been suffering homelessness as we presently are. “All the baby clothes that we bought preparatory to her giving birth had perished in the collapse. My wife’s credentials are trapped in the rubbles. After the government-backed rescued operations had confirmed that there were no more lives to save, they left. Look at those men, digging the rubbles, I hired them to dig and search for our credentials trapped under the rubbles. If God helps us to get them without damage, we would be very grateful as that, and our lives, is what we have now. We have to start all over again with live.” Olanipekun lamented. Mourning the loss of her hubby who had gone to “cool off ” after the hard day’s work, Hadija Ifeanyi told Saturday Mirror that little did they know that death was lurking around the corner to snatch him away that fateful night. She said that she had prepared dinner for her hubby, Ifeanyi, and he promised to eat it after coming back from the ill-fated building where he went to see a friend. But he never came back. “I lost my husband in the collapsed building. His name is Ifeanyi. He was not living there. He only went there to visit a friend after he returned from Yaba where he sold clothes. After he came back from work, he told me that he was going to rest at that place, where the building collapsed, for a while. Little did I know that he was going to rest forever. Look at me now. Ifeanyi is no more. I was at the mortuary this morning to take a look at his corpse. Ifeanyi lay stone dead. He could not talk to me. He could not hold me. Ifeanyi could not come to me. Ifeanyi, why did death take you away from me so wickedly? Why?” the distraught widow asked. “Ifeanyi went down to where he met his brutal death around 10 p.m. It was not long he left when I heard people shouting that a building collapsed. I ran out and was telling people that Ifeanyi was there to cool off. I saw people being rescued and taken to the general hospital but I could not see my husband. I rushed to the hospital, checked everywhere but he was not among the wounded. I had to go to Yaba to inform his colleagues of what had happened and they rushed down in search of him. So, on Thursday, after the crane arrived for rescue operation, it started lifting the debris of the collapsed building. Around 1 p.m. they brought out one baba but he was dead. After that, my husband was also brought out of the building dead. He was wearing a yellow T-shirt and jean shorts. “Ifeanyi was a good man. He was not troublesome. He was very caring. But why? Death why did you snatch him from us so early? He was 38 years old and struggling to make life better for us. But he is now gone. It is so painful that he died this way,” Hadija mourned. Ifeanyi and Hadija’s love seems to have been made in heaven. Despite the fact that the wife is older than him, he was very faithful and committed to living his love without age or ethnic barrier. “I am older than him. I told him to leave me and go for a younger woman that could bear him children but he refused. He said that it is me that he loves. And he has been very committed to the relationship since we met at Mile 12 before we relocated to the Island. Ifeanyi liked me so much and I love him too; but death has taken my love away from me,” Hadija told Saturday Mirror.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 09:34:56 +0000
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