A team of search and rescue and body identification experts have been sent to Nigeria by the South African government to search for their citizens trapped in the rubble of Prophet TB Joshua’s church building that collapsed in Lagos.
A six-storey building in the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) headquarters in Ikotun-Egbe, which serves as a church quest house, collapsed on Friday, September 12, 2014 killing scores and leaving many others wounded.
As at Wednesday, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) had put the death toll at 80. The South African government said 67 of its citizens have been confirmed dead in the tragedy.
The South African government had also said about 300 people from five different South African church tour groups were staying in the guest house when it collapsed.
The South Africa High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu Mnguni, said it was difficult to identify the remains of South African victims and that the embassy had deployed officials to the scene of the collapse.
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Mnguni, speaking to Punch in a telephone conversation said: “I have dispatched some officials to the scene to monitor and identify some of our citizens that were involved and I am waiting for their report, but you know that rescue efforts are ongoing, so we don’t know when the report would come in. We can’t give a final figure on casualty for now.”
He added, “The church gave us a list of some of those affected by the collapse, but there were some gaps and so we got back to them and they have today (Wednesday) filled in the gaps.
“The families of those that were affected in the collapse are also making arrangements to come to Nigeria and they would be taken to the morgue to identify their relations.”
SCOAN officials on Wednesday promised to make a statement on the victims on the collapse.
A member of the church who spoke to Punch on condition of anonymity said: “The building that collapsed used to be a guest house. Apart from being expensive, it is usually reserved for foreigners. The church takes proper documentation of its foreign visitors. They even go as far as collecting their passports upon arrival and they are given tags. So the church has the records of the people that were in the building before it collapsed.”
Meanwhile, some of the survivors have returned to the families in South Africa.
