Residents of
Uzama Street, Off Oliha Quartres, in Egor Local Government of Edo State,
were on Friday thrown into mourning when a section of a building located on the
street collapsed, killing no fewer than three persons.
It was gathered
that the building, operated by a popular pentecostal church in Benin,Church
Chosen Ministry , caved in when some youths in the area, hired by the
management of the church, were carrying out a demolition exercise in order to
create more space in the church compound.
One of the
hired youths, who survived the incident disclosed that the owner of the
building hired him for N3,000 per day. He said that, although nine of them were
hired by the owner of the building, five of his colleagues were breaking the
pillars of the building before tragedy struck.
He said that
other survivors were taken to an undisclosed hospital in critical condition.
He explained
that the building, which collapsed at about 1pm, housed some officials of the
church, who fled as soon as the incident occurred for fear of being lynched by
angry youths in the area.
“The owner of
Christ Chosen Church Deliverance Centre told us to demolish the building
because they wanted more space in the compound. But some of us went out to eat
because we were hungry.
“As we were
eating, many people rushed to where we were coming from. We thought it was a
fire outbreak. But when we got there, we discovered that the building has
collapsed.
“We were nine
in number but four of my colleagues were in the building before it collapsed.
Two were brought out alive with injuries. One died and two others are still
inside.
“We have
already demolished the upper part of the building and wanted to break the
pillars of the lower parts, so that the building would fall. It was when one of
us started work that the building fell,” he said.
A teenager,
Osazu, suspected to be a relative to one of the victims who was said to have
been brought out of the debris dead told our correspondent that he was alerted
that the building where his brother, Orosa, aged 26, was working had collapsed.
“It was when
I came back to rest after work that my brother came to tell me that the
building where my brother went to collapsed. I don’t know if he is still alive
because people are just telling me what happened,” he said.
Another
resident attributed the collapse to greed on the part of the owner.
“How much is
a crane to demolish the building? When I was passing, I wondered why a big
church like this cannot hire a crane for N65,000 per day to do a neat job.
Some crowd of
angry youths in the area were seen destroying the church auditorium, while a
vehicle operated by the church was set ablaze.
However, the
Edo State Commissioner of Police, Folusho Adebanjo, who visited the scene of
the collapsed and confirmed the incident, said that one, out of the five
persons working in the building died.
“One is
unfortunately dead. There are rumours that we still have like two people there.
“Of course,
there is absolute calm there now.
Some
policemen were also seen trying to prevent a breakdown of law and order.