Some residents were thrown into confusion on Monday as authorities forcibly evict them from their homes in Ebute Metta area of Lagos State.
The government had marked the three-storey building as distressed and issued a 24-hour ultimatum to its occupants to vacate the structure.
Residents in 100 Lagos Street off Herbert Macaulay Way, where the affected building is located, cried for help when government officials moved in with an excavator to conduct a partial-controlled demolition.
While some of the residents in the area said the occupants of the building would be rendered homeless if pulled down, others insisted that it was the right thing to do to avert a reoccurrence of Sunday’s incident.
The atmosphere became tense on Monday morning as officials were about to summarily evict residents who ran helter-skelter to move out of the building.
Hours before the eviction notice was served on the residents, Channels Television had reported the collapse of another three-storey building located at No. 38 Ibadan Street off Herbert Macaulay Way in Ebute Metta.
At least eight persons comprising five males and three females were recovered dead from the rubble, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said.
NEMA’s Zonal Coordinator in the South West, Ibrahim Farinloye, who confirmed this revealed that 23 people have been rescued so far after the structure went down at about 10:56pm on Sunday.
A mother and her child were among those recovered dead from the rubble as emergency officials continued rescue and recovery operations at the site.
They include personnel of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), and the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), among others.
Sunday’s incident is the second building collapse to be recorded in the Yaba-Ebute Metta axis of the state in almost three months.
Another three-storey building collapsed in the Onike area of Yaba on February 13, resulting in several casualties after the developer of the project reportedly returned to the site despite a stop-work order on the structure.(Channels TV)
•PHOTO: Building being demolished
