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• Gov Emmanuel to set up panel of inquiry as police confirm 27 dead
By Joe Effiong, Uyo and Doris Obinna
As the government and people of Akwa Ibom State receive condolence messages from across the country over the death of scores in the collapsed building of Reigners Bible Church International, Uyo, one of the pastors who escaped death has recounted his experiences.
The building of Reigners Bible Church International, Uyo collapsed on Saturday during a special service for the consecration of the founder, Akan Weeks, as bishop. The roof of the building caved in on worshippers, including Governor Udom Emmanuel.
In his testimony in church yesterday, Pastor Bassey James of the Royal House of Faith Ministries, Lagos, said God saved him from dying in the collapsed church building.
Pastor James said as he sat at the ministers’ section of the church during the service, a voice told him to leave his seat. As he left his seat and sat somewhere else, the same voice told him to relocate to another place. The pastor said he again left where he sat to another place.
“I moved and sat at another place. The spirit also said I should move to another place. Yes, the spirit said I should change my seat again. I did. Ten minutes thereafter, the building collapsed. Heavy rods collapsed on people,” he recalled.
The pastor said he was tempted to sit where the governor sat, but he first chose to sit with the other pastors before the spirit directed him to move to another place.
“The man that was seated with the governor was hit. So many commissioners were there. I would have loved to sit where the governor sat, but I decided to sit with the ministers, but when I sat there the spirit told me to relocate.”
No fewer than 100 persons reportedly died. However, police confirmed 27 dead while 30 were injured.
Meanwhile, Governor Udom Emmanuel has vowed to bring to book all the professionals involved in the construction of the church auditorium.
The governor said, in a state-wide broadcast, that he would set up a panel to unravel the causes of the collapse of the building.
While promising that the state government would bear the medical cost of all those injured in the disaster, which he noted was the most shocking in the history of the state, Emmanuel, however, appealed to all citizens to remain calm, pray for the injured and avoid undue speculation, as the situation was being given the best possible attention.
Despite his appeal, there were still speculations as to the number of deaths. Some unconfirmed information, especially by church members, say more than 80 of their members, excluding the ones confirmed dead, were still missing by yesterday.
The number did not, however, include non-members who attended the service.
The state police command, through its public relations officer, Codellia Nwawe, told Daily Sun that only 27 persons have been confirmed dead and about 30 others injured.
“At the moment, we have only 27 persons who are certified dead in all the hospitals visited. The evacuation has been concluded; the cranes have cleared the area. There are 30 injured; some with minor injuries and those with major injuries are actually responding to treatment. We have only 27 persons who have actually been certified by doctors as dead,” Nwawe said yesterday.
The collapsed building has rekindled the war of words between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state.
The state APC publicity secretary, Chief Ita Awak, in a statement captioned: “We share your pains and sorrows. May it never happen again,” said the party welcomed Governor Emmanuel’s promise to set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book.
He, however, added: “The APC believes and hopes that as this great country redirects its resources and innate potentials towards a more secure, sustainable and prosperous future, avoidable accidents like the Reigners Bible Church mishap will be blotted out of our existence by the patriotic commitment of all citizens to the APC’s change ethos which is designed to enthrone an ordered, disciplined and prosperous country for all.”
Apparently not comfortable with the APC’s statement, the publicity secretary of the PDP, Mr. Ini Ememobong, fired back,
In a statement titled: “ Ita Awak: Should death not attract sympathy?”, Ememobong said Awak’s statement was a scorn filled-message on behalf of his party, purporting to condole with the victims but obviously seeking to score cheap political gains by being judgmental on the cause of the incident and attempting to use the event to preach the APC change agenda.
“We are deeply troubled by this very inhuman disposition expressed by a man who ought to know more, considering his advanced age and the concomitant maturity that should ordinarily follow. But since we live in very interesting times, filled with incredible characters, we are totally in shock.
We will like to plead that nobody should seek to use this sad event to score any political point. We must sympathise with humanity because its ranks have been depleted via a very tragic source,” the PDP spokesman said.
