Lekki collapsed building: 40 of our men still under the rubble–Hausa CommunityTHE Hausa community in Ikate, Lagos, has raised the alarm that more than 40 members of the community are still trapped under the rubble more than three days after rescue operations end­ed at the scene of the tragedy.
A five-storey building had col­lapsed in the early hours of last Tuesday in Lekki Phase 1 with scores of people believed to be workers of the construction firm handling the project, who were compelled by exigency to sleep over at the site, trapped.
Following the rescue opera­tion launched immediately, six people were brought out alive while 18 were confirmed dead. By the time rescue operation was brought to an end on Wednesday night, the casualty figure had risen to 34 while 13 victims were rescued alive in the two-day operation.
But the leadership of Hausa community in the area told a Sunday Sun reporter that more than 40 members of the community were still missing, hours after rescue operations by government agencies ended, last Wednesday.
The Secretary of Ikate Hausa community, Mr. Awwal Hassan, said that over 50 members of the community were believed to have slept in the building on the eve of the day it collapsed.
The missing members of the community, according to Mr. Hassan, include: Abba Alli, Abdullahi Gambo, Yusuf Ali, Attom Abba, Saminu Umar, Idris Shafiu, Jamilu (surname unknown) Ahmed (surname un­known), Adamu Kada, Ali Kada, Ahmed Isyaku and Kingsley (surname unknown).
Others include Sabiu Ab­dulRasiqu, Yusuf Katsina, Abdullahi Katsina, Sunday Eze, Rafeal Eze, Uche Okoro, Onome, (surname not known) Omoba, Uche Okafor, Sulaimon and Femi Bamigboye.
Other missing persons include Lako, Mohammed, Yinka Olul­eye, Kazeem Owolabi, Friday Eze, Okwonkwo Chika, Yusuf Zamu Gulak and Abdullahi Abba.
Hassan said that the commu­nity was able to identify some members of the community who died in the incident as well as those injured, adding that efforts were ongoing to get the corpses of the dead victims for burial.
“Four of the dead bodies re­covered on Tuesday were those of our members. Additional six corpses were also recovered on Wednesday while few others survived with varied degrees of injuries. But as I’m talking to you, more than 40 of our people are still missing and we believe they are still trapped under the rubble.
“You see, when the building came down, the ground floor where most of the victims were sleeping sank deeper into the ground and buried many of them.
“So, we are sure that most of the missing people are still trapped in the rubble,” Hassan said.
Asked why names of other tribes were included on the list, Hassan said, “We know our­selves very well in this commu­nity. All the names we have here are names of people that lived and worked together with us in the community but whom have not been seen since the tragedy. We cannot just list the names of our people alone and pretend as if nothing has happened to other people because they are not members of our tribe.