The coroner inquest into the collapsed 21 storey building in Ikoyi continues at Ikeja court premises on Thursday, with the head of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency LASEMA, Dr. Oluwafemi Damilola Oke-Osayintolu, revealing that all the victims of the accident were dead before rescue operations began.
In his evidence, Dr Oke-Osanyintolu stated they were able to detect this with their machineries moved to the site of the gory incident.
At the proceeding, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of LASEMA, who led the court into how the rescue operations were carried out by responders, said the rescue operations was carried out by both professionals and non-professionals alike, assisting with their equipment.
Giving a vivid account of the rescue operations, he noted that none of the victims of the collapsed building died during the rescue operations, saying that evidence showed that they were all dead before the rescue operations commenced.
The 21-storey high-rise building located at Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos collapsed killing 50 people.
Led in evidence-in-chief by the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, A.S Odugbemi at the coroner inquest presided by Chief Magistrate Oyetade Alexander Komolafe, Oke-Osayintolu explained that the agency in its years of existence was confronted with what he described as a classical national emergency.
He noted that the rescue team he directed and gave instructions to as the incident commander mandated by the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, moved into the incident area following a primary assessment, partitioning the ‘building’ into Quadrums 1 to 4 and employing Heavy and Life Duty equipment.
He also said the use of drone and Delsa equipment for detection of life enabled both primary and secondary emergency responders to determine that there was no life in the debris before work commenced.
Speaking on oath before the Coroner, Magistrate Komolafe, Dr. Oke-Osayintolu was queried by Mr. Ola Adeosun representing Prowess Engineering Ltd whether the agency in the course of the rescue operation led to the death of some persons underground.
He responded, “My Lord, with my medical background, I have attended to a lot of emergencies within the state and at the federal, I would say no.”
Speaking about what he called theatre field or the emergency field, DG LASEMA said, “Where we put the excavator is the first quadrum. We used the Delsa to detect if there is somebody that is alive and I said this type of collapse building, it’s unique itself.
“When it piles on one another, there won’t be air going in, it will compress the victim and the way our response was operated, we divided the place into quadrums.
“We used a Delsa and drone, I can say that that probability is close to zero.
Continuing the cross-examination, Mr. Adeosun asked, “Are you telling this court that before moving your equipment, you must have confirmed that there is no person alive?
The witness replied during the proceeding,“100 per cent yes, My Lord,” he insists.
“There was nobody that died in the course of our intervention to the best of my knowledge.”
The Thursday proceeding, which commenced at 10:34 a.m, continued with the testimony of Mr. Muritala Olawale, a structural engineer and the Managing Director of Prowess Engineering Nigeria Ltd.
The witness, Mr. Olawale, tendered document on the soil test conducted which were admitted by the Coroner as exhibit, while further hearing was adjourned till February 4.
