The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says no casualties were recorded in the building collapse that occurred in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The NEMA South West Coordinator, Slakku Luggard, and Director of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Akin Makinde, confirmed this to Channels Television in the early hours of Saturday.
Eight men were said to have been in the three-storey building at the time of the collapse on Friday and after frantic efforts by emergency rescue officials and residents in the area, six persons were initially rescued.
Later that evening, an excavator arrived to continue the search through the rubbles.
“It took us some hours before the necessary excavator could be gotten to assist us in evacuating the debris. We thank God there were no casualties,” Makinde said.
After the long search, the remaining two victims were rescued at about 1:00am and immediately taken to the University College Hospital, UCH Ibadan.
Luggard, on the other hand, lamented that the process would have been much more seamless if residents had not crowded the area and if the excavators had been readily available.
He also said there’s a need for more awareness as regards the use of quality building materials while the government needs to put necessary measures in place to ensure that all structures are up to the required standard.
“I think the rescue would have been faster than this and would have given us more results within a short time if not because of the crowd we saw and it was difficult to manage them and the second challenge we had was the issue of excavators.
“The information came around 6:30 and before the excavators actually started, it was about 10 or there about.
“We believe that with more awareness and working together, we will get over this.
“I think people need to be sensitised about the building materials they use and the government will be meeting with stakeholders including people who are into the building industry to make sure that they supervise these things,” he said.