Panic As Three-storey Building Collapses In Lagos

A three-storey building located on Jebba Street at Cemetery in the Ebute-Meta area of Lagos State collapsed on Sunday around 7 pm.

Reports gathered that there was no casualty in the incident because the occupants vacated the building three years ago.

In a chat with The Nation, an eyewitness and a resident of the area, Olalekan Fatai, said the building and some other buildings on the same street and nearby streets had been marked for demolition by the State Government.

He said: "The building collapsed at about 7pm. People were living there before, but its owner sent them out like three years ago.

"Apart from this building that just collapsed, there are other buildings too that were mapped out as distressed buildings around here, last year, by the state government. Some of these buildings marked are already demolished, while some are not."

Another resident of the same street, simply identified as Mr. Abdul, blamed the government for not demolishing the building on time, as the delay could have resulted in death.

He said: "What if this building fell on someone or a nearby building while collapsing? Probably by now, we might be recording casualties.

"Government should be strict with demolishing all these distressed buildings. Once they notice a building is in a bad state, such a building should be demolished immediately to avoid recording death."