By Lukman Olabiyi 

Like scores of others, he was on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, doing menial construction work on an imposing, 21-storey building on the popular road. But at a point, he felt the pangs of hunger sweeping through his belly. He felt he needed an urgent bite, and so he took permission from his supervisor. He stepped out and went to an open canteen on the second street. But he was still on the queue, waiting to be served his food when a loud, monstrous sound ripped through the air. He forgot about the food and uttered a loud yell, as he realised it was the mammoth building he had been working at that collapsed, entrapping and killing many of those he had been working and speaking with a few minutes earlier.    

The man, who gave his name as Ola, regretted that his friend, Sodiq, was unlucky, as he was still trapped in the rubble.

He said he and Sodiq came to work at the construction site on the fateful day, recalling that the supervisor showed him and Sodiq where they would be working on the 20th floor.

He said: “We returned to the 19th floor and were about to discuss our fees when the

man told us to wait for his boss, who was in a meeting on the last floor. I told Sodiq that I was hungry and he also said he was hungry, but that he didn’t have any money on him. He said after the work, we would go and eat. I told him I had N1, 500 and it should be enough for us, but Sodiq insisted that we should wait till after work. So, I responded that I couldn’t work on an empty stomach.

“I came down from the building and walked to the other street to eat noodles. While waiting for my turn, Sodiq called that I should come up, that they were about to conclude the meeting, but I insisted on eating before returning to the site. A few minutes later, I heard a loud sound and it shook the whole place. People started running towards the construction site and I asked what happened. I was told that the building under construction had collapsed. I rushed there and couldn’t believe my eyes with the level of destruction. I became dizzy and perplexed. I was just shouting Sodiq, Sodiq Sodiq!”

According to Ola, Sodiq and himself had been friends for years and had both worked at several sites.

“We agreed that he should stay at Ikoyi while I will be at Ajah. So, once we got a job, we would call each other. He called me on Monday morning that there was a job at Ikoyi and I came to meet him. God should help me keep him alive. I haven’t gone home since Monday, hoping to see him rescued,” he said in tears.

Indeed, since Monday, November 1, Ikoyi has become a spectacle of tears and anguish, the air beclouded with wailing, grief and the pain of family and friends of the victims of the building collapse. 

Some family members of the victims came with photographs of persons they believed were still trapped in the rubble.

Even now, the actual number of persons dead or rescued from the collapsed building has remained unclear. But the state government informed that as at Thursday afternoon, 32 fatalities had been recorded while nine persons were rescued alive.

The state government has also opened a register for people with missing persons or loved ones whom they believed might have been at the site before the collapse.

A middle-aged woman, who claimed to be a mother of one of the victims, presented a pitiable sight. 

She wailed uncontrollably as she sought to know the fate of her son, even as she claimed to have lost two children in a space of two months.

Barely a year ago, she claimed, one of her sons, Ade, had passed on, even before another son, Sesan got involved in the tragic collapse of the 21-storey building in Ikoyi.

“I never knew what happened at the site, in this massive building until I got here. My son usually came home every Sunday; he was involved in this unfortunate inci-dent the day he arrived at work. I am begging the government and the people involved to help me bring my son out, either dead or alive, so that I can know my fate,” she said. 

Also at the scene, a man who identified himself as Abel Godwin betrayed his emotions, as he continued the search for his missing 18-year-old son believed to have been working at the site when the building came crashing down.

Godwin said he travelled from Abuja to Lagos because of the incident. According to him, he heard of the fatal incident on Tuesday and arrived in Lagos at 2 am on Wednesday.

He said: “I came from Abuja by 2am. My son is one of the victims. He’s 18 years old. I got this information around 10am Tuesday. I hit the road and I got here at 2am. Ever since then, I have been here.”

He said he had made several efforts to see his son, dead or alive, regretting that filling of forms and visits to the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, had been fruitless.

Another man said he came from Port Novo, Benin Republic to work at the site with his brother, wife and some others, regretting that those ones got trapped in the debris.

A lady in search of her brother, gave her name as Motunrayo Elegbede. She said: “My “My brother, Adewale Husseini, is inside there. He came to look for his friend, and not quite 20 minutes after, the building collapsed. That is why we’ve been here in the last three days. There’s no sign of him from the bodies that had been brought out. We put all our hope in God. We don’t want him dead; we want him to come out alive.”

Meanwhile, the state governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had vowed to unearth the cause or causes of the incident. He has also inaugurated a six-man investigative panel to unravel the cause. The panel members are Toyin Ayinde (chairman), Akintilo Idris Adeleke, Yinka Ogundairo, Godfrey C. Godfrey, Mrs Bunmi Ibraheem, and Mrs Ekundayo Onajobi, who will serve as Secretary. The panel has 30 days to turn in its report.

“No one can describe the pain families of the victims are going through. We believe justice will be done and lessons learned will be used to guard our path forward. The whole nation is watching.

“Life is something that we need to continue to cherish. We can’t lose it at the shortest time even beyond our expectations. The constitution of this panel shows that we want to know what really happened so we can all learn and ensure we can live in a safe environment,” Sanwo-Olu said.