Death toll in Ikoyi building collapse hits 44 as rescue operation reaches 99%

Two more corpses have been pulled out of the Ikoyi high-rise building that collapsed last Monday, raising the death toll to 44, a source at National Emergency Management Agency has said.

This is coming with a report that rescue and recovery operations at the scene has reached 99 per cent completion as of Sunday.

Vanguard in a report on Monday quoted a source as saying two more bodies were recovered after Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State had left the scene on Saturday.

One of the bodies was reportedly recovered at about 10pm on Saturday, while the other was recovered midnight, same day.

But Lagos Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, said on Sunday that only one more body was recovered from the site of the collapsed building.

According to him, the body, which was recovered, Saturday, has brought the number retrieved from the rubble to 43.

Sanwo-Olu had disclosed that 42 deaths and 15 survivors had been recorded, so far, on Saturday, when he visited the site in the company of All Progressives Congress, APC, National Leader, Bola Tinubu, and Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, with some state executive members.

Some family members and relatives have continued to keep vigil at the site in the search for their missing loved ones.

Meanwhile, the identification of bodies continues at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, IDH, Yaba.

Most of the relatives begged the governor to give them the bodies of their loved ones.

Meanwhile, efforts by the Federal Government to support ongoing recovery efforts were reportedly rebuffed by the state government, when the former deployed a team of Nigerian Army engineers to the scene.

The team, it was gathered, was led by Brigadier General Omali who, on arrival, was received by the acting Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency in Lagos State, Ibrahim Farinloye.

The team was introduced to Lagos State Commissioners for Special Duties, and Physical Planning and Urban Development, Messrs Bamigbose Martins and Idris Salako, respectively, who were also on ground.

The corps engineer team explained that they received a directive from Abuja to deploy equipment to assist in carting away the rubble.

However, Martins, in response, informed the team that the work was near completion.

It was learned that the team immediately left the scene after the discussion with the commissioners.