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Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, has revealed that nine persons have been rescued from the building that collapsed in Ikoyi area of the state on Monday afternoon.
Hamzat, who paid a visit to the place on Tuesday, also said 10 bodies have been recovered from the rubble of the collapsed building.
The deputy governor, who noted that the building was sealed between July and November 2020, said the two survivors who were recently rescued are currently being treated at a hospital, adding that they gave conflicting figures concerning the number of people that were inside the building before it collapsed.
“This is now a search and rescue operation and our mission is to get people out of here. This morning we took out two people and they are doing well in the hospital. Totally we’ve taken nine people out and they are in the hospital and some have been discharged and we’ve sadly taken out 10 dead bodies
“The operation as you can see is going on and we will not leave until we are able to account for everybody. We are responsible for the people of the state; our focus is on saving lives.
“As a matter of fact, this place was sealed for about four months sometime last year from July to November because our agency came in to do structural test and saw some anomalies and shut it down and said those things should be corrected.
“The other two buildings will also be audited in terms of integrity test and of course if we see anything, appropriate actions will be taken. They were making corrective actions when this happened. At the time this happened, they were not really constructing but investigations later will show what really happened.
“This particular building that collapsed was approved for 21 floors three years ago not 15 floors, it’s the construction that failed apparently,” Hamzat said.