Breaking: Deaths Recorded as Building Collapses in Lekki Lagos, Photos Emerge
- Two people were confirmed dead on Wednesday, March 5, while 14 others were rescued alive from the rubble after a three-storey building with a penthouse under construction collapsed on Oriwu Street, in Lekki area of Lagos
- The cause of the collapse could not be immediately ascertained, but Legit.ng gathered that it caved in at about 4 pm
- Spokesperson of the Lagos state police command, Benjamin Hudenyin, who confirmed the incident, said operatives of the command were mobilised to the scene immediately after it received the information
Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering metro.
Lekki, Lagos state - In Nigeria’s megacity of Lagos, a building under construction at Oriwu Street in Lekki Phase 1 area has fatally collapsed.
As reported by The Punch on Wednesday night, March 5, the incident trapped several people under the rubble.
Source: Facebook
The state police command’s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, disclosed in a statement that the incident happened at about 4 pm.
Hundeyin added that 14 persons had been rescued from the rubble and taken to the hospital for medical attention.
He wrote on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle:
“Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have been mobilised to the scene of the collapse of a building under construction at Oriwu Street, Lekki Phase 1 which occurred at about 1600hrs today.
“A total of 14 persons have so far been rescued and taken to Lagos Island General Hospital for treatment.
“Meanwhile, operatives of the command remain on ground to provide security for the ongoing rescue operation.”
In a subsequent update, the police representative disclosed that two corpses had been recovered from the rubble.
Hundeyin said:
"Two bodies have been recovered."
Why Lagos buildings keep crashing down
In 2024, a building collapsed in Lagos once every two weeks on average.
Whereas the commercial cost can be calculated, a figure can never be put on the value of the lives lost underneath the rubble.
The gaps among the buildings, replaced by piles of debris, represent a failure of governance as well as giving rise to allegations of contractors trying to cut corners to save money.
There are regulations, there are maintenance schedules, there are inspectors – but the system does not work.
Those responsible are never held to account, and so nothing ever changes.
Source: Getty Images
Lagos, dubbed by an expert as " the building-collapse capital of Nigeria", has seen at least 90 buildings collapse in the last 13 years, leaving more than 350 people dead, according to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
One of the most notorious incidents was in 2021 when a 21-storey building owned by Femi Osibona collapsed.
2 dead in Ikota building collapse
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that a tragic building collapse in Ikota area of Lekki, Ajah, Lagos state, resulted in the deaths of two individuals.
The two-storey structure, still under construction, caved in, leaving five workers seriously injured and others feared trapped beneath the rubble.
According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the bodies of two victims were recovered from the wreckage: an adult male and a young boy.
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Source: Legit.ng
