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Friday, March 29, 2024

SCOAN Collapse: Victims From Nigeria, Togo, Benin Still Unaccounted For (PHOTO)

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Veronica, one of the missing victims (inset) and a file photo of rescue workers at the site of the collapsed building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos(Photo Credit: The Punch)
Veronica, one of the missing victims (inset) and a file photo of rescue workers at the site of the collapsed building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos (Photo Credit: The Punch)

Still on the collapse of the six storey building at Prophet TB Joshua’s The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) in Ikotun area of Lagos state, the latest update gathered reveals that South Africa is not the only foreign nation that lost their citizens in the tragedy.

About three victims from Togo are still unaccounted for whereas a Beninoise family had since been combing hospitals in a bid to find one of their compatriots.

Some correspondents from Punch who went to join the search for the victims gathered that about 11 workers from Togo got stuck under the debris after the building collapsed.

However, it was noted that the men were not church workers but artisans who were working in the building as at the time of the unforeseen danger.

One of the bereaved, Sofo Apenete whose relations were among the victimized 11 Togolese workers, said the Togolese community have been unhappy and restless since the sudden occurrence of the building collapse.

According to Apenete, “Our people only came to Nigeria for work and this happened. They are not even members of the church. What do we go back home to say to their relations, that we could not even find their bodies?”

He added that it took days to locate eight of the 11 men.

However, presently, three out of the 11 workers are still unaccounted for.

Apenete revealed that they had searched over 15 hospitals in Lagos owing to the fact that the injured victims were distributed in different hospitals located in different places. He pointed out that it was an uphill task for them because of the futility of the search with hospital workers claiming their men were neither among the dead nor the injured in all the hospitals they visited.

“Three were located not long after the collapse and five during our searches. But we have not been able to locate the remaining three workers. One of the three, Estse Basil, is my distant relation. I am not really sure about the names of the other two men,” he noted.

Apenete said families of the already recovered injured Togo citizens had to transfer them back home in Togo for further treatment as they could not leave them at home in Agbara area of Lagos where they live.

A Togolese Embassy official in Lagos Mr. Yaovi disclosed that some of the country’s officials had paid a visit to the church during the week but would give no official word on efforts to locate their missing citizens.

“Our officials have been to the scene but got no evidence that Togolese people were involved, the official identified as Yaovi said.

Furthermore, as at Monday, September 22, 2014 the death toll of the September 12 collapse has been put at 115 of which South Africans lost about 84 citizens who were reportedly lodging in the building which was under construction before the collapse.

Meanwhile, more families also revealed the difficulty they have experienced trying to locate their members who were victimized by the building collapse pointing out that it has not been easy finding all the victims of the collapse disaster.

Also, a Kogi state indigene who works in the laundry department of the SCOAN while speaking pleaded anonymity because the church had warned members not to divulge information related to the disastrous occurrence to the public. He said he had not found his 39-year old wife Veronica who he married 18 years ago.

According to him, he waits by the phone with his five children daily in high spirits expecting to hear that her body was recovered in one of the hospitals after searching 16 hospitals in vain.

“My gut tells me she is dead, but I will never rest until I find her body,” he said.

He provided an evidence of the list of the 16 hospitals he had gone to in search of his wife and pointed out that each one was ticked with a pen to show that he had been there in search of his wife who he didn’t find.

He said, “My wife was among the visitors’ coordinators, serving the guests. She worked on the ground floor where the restaurant was. I am a worker in the church as well.

“I rushed to the gate immediately the incident occurred but I was not allowed to enter. The police blocked the entrance.

“They were carrying the victims out one after the other in ambulances. I called my wife’s mobile phone but it was not reachable. All through the following day, I got no news about her. I went there every day because I was in agony.

“I was so helpless but on the third day, I went with two of her uncles to Igando General Hospital. We were told that nobody that looked like her was there and we have searched 16 hospitals since then.

“There were many ambulances taking victims to the hospitals but I have not been able to determine which of the drivers took my wife.

“I heard that about 12 Nigerian church workers, who were attending to guests, were on the ground floor. I heard that they have been rescued, but my wife and another woman around there have not been seen.”

Further speaking, the Kogi indigene said he had not been to church for some weeks due to ill health before the incident. According to him, the last contact he had with his wife was in the morning of the day of the sad occurrence while he was lying on the bed, his wife came home and they embraced each other.

He said, “I wish I could just find her corpse and take her to our hometown in Kogi State for burial. I know my wife cannot be alive and not have contacted me all this while. I speak with her mother every day and we are all in sorrow that we have not recovered her body.”

According to the the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesperson in the South West, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, the agency was aware of the different victims from different countries.

He clarified that it was the process of identification of the victims that made the search seem difficult pointing out that the victims were not forgotten.

“The families of the victims need to exercise patience. This is going to take a while because there are three methods through which victims would be identified; by fingerprints, pathology and DNA.

“We are going to repeat the same process we used during the 2012 Dana plane crash. You remember the process of identifying victims took up to two months at the time.”

Farinloye said that it was not possible that victims would still be trapped under the rubble because he ensured the ground floor of the site was turned out before the site was closed last week Thursday at 3.15pm last week.

Also, another member of SCOAN, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that a Beninoise family was yet to find their missing member who was involved in the tragedy.

“The family has been going about showing pictures of the missing man. The family said he was also in the building when it collapsed. But nobody knows anything about him. They called the man Javi,” he said.

The correspondents were unable to reach the famil to get details of the family member because the phone lines listed on the Beninoise embassy’s website have not been going through.

Another family of a 35 year-old bricklayer, Monsuru Jimoh, who was working in the a building, had initially told our correspondents that he had not been located since the event.

However, it had been revealed that the body was finally located at Isolo General Hospital after visits to scores of hospitals and morgues.

Narrating their ordeal, the deceased’s elder brother, Ayoade, said, “The day of the incident, he called to inform me that he was going to work at Synagogue. But in the evening, someone called to tell me that a building had collapsed in the church compound. My mind went to my brother immediately.

“We started looking everywhere but the following day, we were told to check all the hospitals around since all the victims were taken to various hospitals in Lagos.

“After searching many hospitals, we were able to locate him at Isolo. Even though we are very sad, we are happy that at least we located his body. We reported to the police and were asked to get a note from Synagogue authorities. We will need to present a document of identification but we only have his birth certificate for now.

He further disclosed that his brother’s wife and child are based in Ibadan, Oyo state.

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