Nigeria: Body Of Collapsed High-rise Building Developer, Femi Osibona, Recovered

By John Ikani

The body of the developer of the collapsed building in Ikoyi area of Lagos State, Femi Osibona, has been discovered at the site of the building.

Osibona was the Managing Director, Fourscore Homes, the firm constructing the 21-storey building which collapsed on Monday, on Gerrard Road in Ikoyi, Lagos.

An official of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), who confirmed the development to newsmen at the site, said rescue workers recovered Osibona’s body on Thursday evening.

There is still no official figure of how many people were in the building when the structure caved in.

Meanwhile, as of Thursday afternoon, NEMA had recovered 38 bodies.

The cause of the incident is unknown, but building collapses are tragically common in Africa’s most populous country, where millions live in dilapidated properties and construction standards are routinely ignored.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu who visited the scene on Wednesday afternoon said there were obvious violations and “mistakes from all angles” in the tragedy.

He has set up a Panel of Inquiry into the incident and promised that those found culpable after investigations by the panel, will be punished.

Meanwhile, distraught families and friends of people trapped in the rubble have been waiting for days outside the scene as rescue operations unfold.