September 14, 2014 – The death toll has continued to rise since Friday when a guest house in Pastor TB Joshua’s Synagogue of All Nations church, in Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria collapsed.
By Sunday afternoon the death toll has risen, so were the number of those rescued from the debris of the 6 storey building under construction in the church.
Public Relations Officer, National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA), Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye said in the last few minutes that the death toll has risen to 44 adding that 130 people mostly guest have been rescued from the debris.
He said rescue operation is still ongoing. He said it was not easy for the rescue operators and journalists to gain access to the venue of the building adding that it took the intervention of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola for worshipers and security operatives to allow rescue operators to the site of the collapsed.
According to NEMA, officials of the state government were allowed in after the intervention of the governor late Friday. He said that prior to the governor’s intervention only guests, comprising Germans were in charge of rescue operation.
We gathered that the affected structure was a guest house approved for about two storey building, but we gathered that the church allegedly opted to raise it to sixth floor and work was ongoing while guests were accommodated in the building.
We gathered that guests were in the dinning having their meals when the structure collapsed at 1PM.
