Posted by Soni Daniel, Port Harcourt on
Relatives and sympathisers wept profusely on Tuesday as rescue workers retrieved the bodies of 10 of those trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Relatives and sympathisers wept profusely on Tuesday as rescue workers retrieved the bodies of 10 of those trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
First to be pulled out around 10am was the body of one of the site engineers whose name was given as Osigwe Toochi.
Our correspondent gathered that the late Toochi whose name means (Praise God) was an in-law of one of the owners of the collapsed building.
His body was recovered along with a bloodstained prayer book titled, Praying the right way, authored by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Christ Embassy Church, Lagos.
Although the names of the other nine recovered bodies could not be obtained, our correspondent reported that seven of the trapped people were pulled out alive.
The lucky persons were simply identified as Ade; Abraham; Chukwuka; Tony; Isiaka; Udede; and Christopher.
Three persons were successfully rescued from the rubble on Monday hours after the building caved in.
One of the volunteers, who aided in the rescue opreation, Mr. Ani Eshiet, said he had to creep into one of the crevices to bring out Chukwuka.
Eshiet, a commercial cyclist, told our correspondent that he knew most of the survivors and the dead even though he was not staying with them in the collapsed structure.
He said, 'I am an Okada rider; when I heard that my friends were trapped, I had to move in immediately to see how I could help save them.
'When I reached the place where Chukwuma was lying, I pulled his hands towards myself and he moved along the path slowly until I brought him out."
Our correspondent reported that more of the trapped people would have been recovered alive, but for the delay in rescue operation, caused by lack of equipment.
The Special Adviser to the Rivers State Governor on Emergency and Fire Service, Chief Bebe Okapabi, had sent out distress calls to equipment-hiring firms in the state to come to the aid of the rescue team.
Only one company responded with a digger and a bulldozer around 1pm on Tuesday.
Many of the victims who had been calling for help, were said to have passed on in the early hours of Tuesday.
The delay in clearing the rubble led to a scuffle between the police and persons who claimed to be relatives of those feared to be in the wreckage.
While angry mob kept pushing towards the direction of the collapsed building, policemen spiritedly tried to disperse them.
But as rescued work continued, the drawings, believed to be the plan of the collapsed structure, were recovered.
They showed that the building, meant for a hotel, was the property of Messrs Ari Trading Limited of no specific address.
According to the drawings, the building was designed by a Lagos-based firm of architects and planners with the stamp of the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria. The building was set on a total floor area of 2844.569 square metres.
The builders however built on an area of 975 square metres, representing 34.9 per cent of the land.
Although the state Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Tele Ikuru, said on Monday that the collapsed building was not certified, a source close to his ministry said that the building plan was actually approved by the ministry last year.
The Punch, Wednesday, 20, July, 2005