Posted by AYODELE OJO on
IT was like the Biblical Babylon in ruins. The sight was horrible. Mangled bodies, dead and alive, were pulled out of the rubble.....
IT was like the Biblical Babylon in ruins. The sight was horrible. Mangled bodies, dead and alive, were pulled out of the rubble. A pregnant woman, twins, little children, old and young, even a whole family got trapped and ended their lives in the unfortunate incident. Tears streamed down the cheeks of sympathisers who had gathered at the scene of the collapsed building and rained curses on the owners at the sight of bodies being pulled out by rescue workers. Several other residents trapped in the collapsed building made frantic telephone calls for help. While the rescue operation was going on, a woman trapped made a save-my-soul call to relatives. But, by the time a lady who received the call came, there was no way she (the victim) could be brought out.
'Please, help, my sister is dying. She is trapped in the building," the young lady wept profusely as she pleaded with the officers of Red Cross Society on rescue operation for help. No help came. As hours went by, a call was put across to the number, it rang, but no response. 'My sister is gone, gone. Please let me see her body," she said as she waited expecting the remains of her sister to be brought out throughout Wednesday without any success. By the time the heavy-duty equipment on site closed for the day at about 6.00 p.m, it was a sad moment for her.
With ineffective tools, sympathizers had begun rescue effort the moment the building located at 71 Bola Street, off Ibadan Street, Ebute Meta, Lagos collapsed last Tuesday, looking for victims in the debris. Some were rescued with various degrees of injuries. Virtually all hospitals in the area were filled with victims who were residents of the house. The whole area was dark and this hampered rescue operation. From far and near, people came to the site of the unfortunate incident. Some were involved in the rescue operation and worked till daybreak.
When day broke on Wednesday, it was a sea of heads that converged on the place. Some were relatives while others were sympathizers. Heavy-duty equipment from Julius Berger, the construction giant, was brought to the scene to rescue scores of trapped residents.
Risi, fondly called Iyalaje, had a shop where she sold provision in the house. Her death was a tragic one that caused commotion. When she was pulled out of the rubble, dead, Wednesday, an iron rod has pierced her head. The sight evoked emotion. The residents could not hold back tears. Iyalaje was said to have been trusting God for the fruit of the womb for the past seven years but got pregnant only months back and was almost putting to bed. When the news of her death got to her husband, he was said to have collapsed and was rushed to hospital. Iyalaje has since been buried. The entire family of Mr. Rotimi Folawiyo with his wife and three children, staying at a back flat of the collapsed building, all perished. About five twins and mothers were in the house and several of the twins were lost to the collapsed building. As the body of Nnamdi, popularly known as IK, was being pulled out of the debris, symphatizers could not hold back tears. Again they rained curses on the owners of the property. IK sold motorcycles and loved children. He was found holding a two-year-old girl in the rubble. His body covered the little girl who survived. A lady who went upstairs to rescue a child was unlucky as she died in the process. The little child survived.
At exactly 1:16pm last Thursday when the lifeless body of an accountant, Mr. Dayo, of Lagos State Chapter of Red Cross was pulled out, members of the humanitarian society involved in the rescue operation wept. Her daughter sobbed and refused to be consoled.
The actual figure of the casualty could not be ascertained. Many were rescued with various degrees of wounds while tens of residents and those that came into the building at that time died. It was said that about 200 people resided in the collapsed building.
That Tuesday was the end of Titanic House. No one ever imagined a tragic incident of that proportion was in the making. Unfortunately, it came like a quake. Titanic, as House 71 Bola Street was derogatory called, collapsed like a pack of cards, leaving in its trail tens of trapped people.
There were 36 flats of various mode -three-bedroom, mini-flat, self-contained- and 18 shops in the house. The house was said to have been built in 2002 and was approved as a two-storey building not four that it later became. In the 18 shops, some people were at the hairdressing salon located therein, some buying provision and pharmaceutical products in a chemist shop while some people were hanging out at a beer parlour in the house that dwarfed other buildings in the area at the time the incident happened.
The incident again brought to the fore the nation's poor emergency management. Even the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), officials were only seen on the scene without any equipment to render any strategic assistance. 'NEMA was not on the ground. If you are talking of somebody to be on ground, assistance would be rendered physically," Deacon Timothy Oladele, chairman, Nigerian Red Cross Society, Lagos Branch told Sunday Vanguard.
By 6pm on the second day after the incident, rescue operations were suspended as the men manning Julius Berger earth moving equipment stopped working for the day. A journalist working with a foreign news agency told Sunday Vanguard that the situation only showed the scandalous response to emergency situation. 'Many people died because of poor response to emergency. The government response was zero and should be blamed for the unfortunate incident. Walk round several buildings in the area and you will see that there are cracks in them. Red Cross did their best. Can you imagine that equipment brought to the site stopped working barely few hours after they came to the scene? Yet people were trapped crying for help. This was very unfortunate," the journalist stated.
Oladele noted that many of the residents of the house would have been rescued if prompt emergency response from agencies of government had come early enough. 'We started responding manually to the crisis till the midnight of the day of the incident. The people of the neighbourhood assisted us greatly. The response of the government was too slow. They came a little bit late; if we had seen government response on Tuesday night the situation would have been better. We would have rescued more people, but nobody came. Although we appreciate the effort of Lagos State government in giving directives to hospitals not to reject any victim brought by Red Cross, the emergency response came a little bit late. We were working manually from Tuesday night until around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, when earth moving equipment was brought. Emergency should be fast, unfortunately, we are not yet there," the Red Cross boss lamented.
BABY DROWNS
The collapse of 71 Bola Street happened exactly one week after two-year-old Fawas Badmus fell inside a well in another structure on the same street managed by the same developers - Kunle, Alfa, Usman, and another Kunle.
Residents of the other building , 77b Bola Street, were still said to be mourning Fawas when House 71 collapsed. The baby's death was said to have happened at about 8pm on Tuesday 11 July. Little Fawas was said to have been playing outside the house with people and while returning to his parent's apartment, he made attempt to cross the well. As he attempted doing so, he fell into the uncovered well . A resident was said to have come later to fetch water from the well and covered it. As there was power outage, he did not notice that Fawas had drowned therein.
A search party by parents and residents did not yield Fawas.
With no hope in sight, the family reported the matter at four different police stations- Denton, Adekunle, Panti, and Oko Baba. By sheer observance, somebody brought halogen lamp to the side of the well and opened it. The sight was shocking: Fawas lifeless body afloat. It was a painful end for Fawas. Sympathizers besieged the house to console the parents of the little boy who two weeks before earlier, celebrated his second birthday. The father, Suleiman Badmos, spoke on the boy's death. His words:
'On the fateful day my little boy drowned, I was ill and inside the house with my wife who was trying to give me medication while Fawas and his brother with other tenants were outside. After some time, we started looking for Fawas and searched everywhere without finding him. We reported the matter at police stations and later found the boy afloat inside the well. I was even the one that did the cover, all in a bid to prevent occurrence of a tragic incident like this. When the developers heard of my son's death, they didn't even say sorry. Now, I lost my son and now being pushed out of the house," the father told Sunday Vanguard of his double tragedy.
Residents of collapsed 71 Bola Street, 77B where Fawas died and two others managed by the developers in the area were last week given seven days quit notice. In fact, some had packed their properties as at the time of filing this report. Many of the occupants who spoke to Sunday Vanguard were unhappy about the turn of events. Those residing at House 77B told our reporter that basic facilities were not provided when they were moving in. 'We bought water closets, got and fixed metre from NEPA and sometimes fixed doors. Before the unfortunate incident, we were even making attempt to put pillar in the house because we discovered that the structure was weak. The money we paid was not due yet but because of the incident at the other building we were asked to quit," Fatai Bello, one of the occupants said.
Thursday, Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Authority had given the residents quit notices. The agency said the houses contravened government laws on development of property. In a letter dated July 20, 2006 and signed by the general manager of the Physical Planning and Development Authority which was pasted on one of the affected houses located at 49 Ibadan Street, the agency said the building violated Development Law 2005. The contravention notice read: 'Upon inspection of the property at the above address, it appears that the provision of the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law 2005 and the regulation made under it have been contravened in respect thereof." The day the contravention notice was given, the quit notice stating that the house would be demolished was also served on the residents of the structure.
STANDING COFFINS
Mr. Akinsola Oluwafemi, secretary-general of the Nigerian Institute of Building, NIB, regretted the incident and described it as very sad. According to him, 'in this present day of civilization, building collapse should not happen. The problem has always been that of who is in-charge of the building processes. All aspects of construction works, right from the conception of the structure, must be regulated. You have the architect and engineer in charge at the preliminary stage, but when construction is on the super structure, being built, there is no professional in charge." This unwholesome attitude makes any Dick and Harry to come up to be an expert in construction and handle construction works. Oluwafemi recalled that early in the year, he warned that more buildings were waiting to collapse in Lagos. He was of the view that attention should not be focused only on buildings under construction, but that attention should equally be given to buildings already inhabited. The secretary general of NIB warned that there were still so many buildings that were coffins standing and nobody was paying attention to them.
To him, government should be blamed for the collapse, not individuals because it is the one that has the statutory responsibility to control development of structures. 'You will see some buildings that have been marked for demolition, nothing is done to ensure that those who are there are taken out. Marking out is not an answer because when you mark, and you do not carry out any action on the property you have marked, you have not done anything on it. That is exactly what is happening here", he said, noting that the problem was that there were so many laws that regulate building but were not being enforced. 'The government should not just bark, they should bite. There are so many buildings out there waiting to collapse. Last year, the government carried out a survey and they labeled some houses as distressed properties. What have they done about them? They are all still there."
Speaking with Sunday Vanguard, Engr. Patrick Oluale, who came all the way from Ekiti State College of Education, Ikere Ekiti and a member of the committee for Prevention, Failure and Analysis, said the incident was quite unfortunate. From visual observation, he said, one could see that many things were wrong with the collapsed building. According to him, 'the content of the building was grossly inadequate and when you see the iron materials used, they are below standard. From all indications, the construction of the job might have been given to quacks. Further investigations will be carried out to find out the real causes of the collapse."
Mr. Sola Famakin, a staff of Lagos State Maternal Testing Laboratory, who took some concrete, iron rod and other components from the site said they were taking some of the materials used in the construction of the house for test to know if they were properly made and of right quality. 'We want to assess the integrity of the materials that were used. Even looking at the materials, they are sub-standard. By the time we go in for integrity test, we will know the quality of the materials used," he assured.
We saw it coming - residents
Many residents of Bola Street Ebute-Meta, Lagos and other adjourning streets said they saw the collapse of the house coming. The building that dwarfed other buildings in the area was an imposing one that made residents of the area to wonder how such a mighty building could be erected on such a small piece of land. Each time they looked at the structure, it was a source of worry to them. Some of them even said they fought against the construction of the building when it started. Because of its massive look, they derogatory called the house Titanic while some referred to it as Barrack because of the number of occupants. By the time the building collapsed last Tuesday, it wasn't unexpected to them. What, however, saddened their hearts was the innocent people trapped and some that died in the unfortunate incident.
Adenike Adeyemi, an occupant of an adjacent house to the collapsed structure, was enraged. When Adenike was asked how she would described the building when it was standing, she responded with tears streaming down her face. 'Standing, it was terrible. Standing, terrible," she said. 'You need to see it when you get down from that bus stop and you would notice immediately that the building was not standing, but bending and sinking. We called this house Titanic because it was so big and weak.
She said most of the residents of the house were people from outside who had never lived in the area because nobody within would rent a house like that. Adenike said: 'We stood up and fought, wrote petitions against the developer when the house was under construction, nothing was done. We sent petitions to government agencies, complaining that the land could not hold the structure that was being erected on it. We got nothing out, nothing.
'The residents of the house came from outside Ebute-Metta because people within knew that the house was not good and so could not rent apartment in it. And those that died are innocents. They knew nothing about the building. We that stay within this vicinity knew everything and we fought against it. Nothing was done."
Another residents, Albert Ilenre, corroborated Adenike's statement. Said he: 'Nobody needed to be told that the building was a waiting disaster. Mere looking at it from afar one will know that the building was weak. The structure was too much and I doubt if any sensible government would have given approval for such an imposing structure. When you moved closer, you will easily have known that the foundation of the house was weak. I don't know people still inhabited the house before the collapse.
Mr. Gbolahan Daniel has been a landlord at Bola Street, a stone throw to the scene of the collapsed building. When the developers started building the house few years back, he was one of the people that complained about the materials being used and the quality of job being done from the German floor, decking, lintel, floor and all others. 'At that time," he says, ' one of my friends, Moshood, needed a place and there was a space at the second floor of the house. The day we went to inspect the house, I touched the edges of the house and saw that it was a disaster in waiting. Plastering fell on the floor just on mere touching.
'Unfortunately, as one floor was being completed, people were moving in. One day, I went to a business centre in the house to make phone calls, and I saw the electrical materials they has brought to fix on the floor under construction, I told them that the materials were of low quality. They did not respond. I said, I wont allow any people I knew rent the house. The rate at which the structure was being put together was too fast.
'By the time the structure, three storey, had been completed, another 3-bedroom flat and some mini-flats were put on the fourth storey. When the developer put the structure there, he said it was done to balance the building. We complained that he was adding more to the weight that was already too big, but nothing was done. When the developer was putting up the structure, we called one of the inheritors, Tunde, of the old house on the property and complained to him.