FRIDAY- 5th November, 2021: Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has declared three days of mourning over the Ikoyi building collapse. All flags are to be flown at half-mast in public and private buildings and official engagements cancelled during the period.
This came as the governor signed the executive order giving legal backing to the panel of inquiry set up to probe the collapsed building.
He inaugurated the panel at the Five Cowries Boat Terminal of the Lagos State Water Authority (LASWA) on Falomo Road, Ikoyi, yesterday, with a charge to get to the root of the building collapse.
The governor charged the panel chaired by Mr. Toyin Ayinde to do its job without fear or favour, adding that Lagosians and the country as a whole deserve to know what led to the incident to forestall future occurrences.
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Other members of the panel are Akintilo Adeleke, Yinka Ogundairo, Godfrey C. Godfrey, Mrs Bunmi Ibraheem, while Mrs. Ekundayo Onajobi will serve as secretary.
- panel is expected to report back within four weeks.
The governor described the event as a “sad one” for Lagos during the panel inauguration.
“We are gathered here to perform a sad but necessary duty, which is the inauguration of a six-member panel of inquiry into the collapse of the 21-storey building at Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, on Monday. It is a solemn moment for me personally, but this is an important assignment. Indeed, the generation coming after will not forgive us if we don’t do the right thing on this incident.
“The inauguration of this panel shows sincerely that the state government is interested in unravelling and get to the root cause of what happened to the building, so that everyone concerned, including the government, will learn from the very unfortunate incident. Lagosians and the world will be watching and waiting keenly, with the full expectation that the immediate and remote causes of this tragedy will be uncovered.”
He said the public deserved to know what went wrong and stressed that the work of the panel would not bring back the lives lost but would help to prevent future reoccurrence of such tragic events.
He said the oath taken by the tribunal members empowered them with adequate privileges of government powers to conduct independent investigation without fear, favour, interference and restrictions.
“What this tribunal will be doing over the course of the next few weeks will have important implications for building safety and for emergency response, not just in Lagos, but in the entire country. It will also go a long way towards ensuring that the families of the innocent victims of this avoidable tragedy experience some sort of closure and get justice,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Ayinde said Lagos was in its “dark period” given the record of fatalities from the site of the building collapse and pledged on behalf of members to discharge the duty with all sense of responsibility and in line with ethics.
The governor, who left the venue for the collapsed building site on Gerrard Road, met and interacted with all the first responders to enable him assess the extent of the rescue operation ongoing. He said the bodies would as from today be ready for release to their families for burial, as autopsy was being rounded off on them.
The governor said the process was taking long because corona inquisition, among others was being conducted, saying such could also reveal more information about few of the affected.
Meanwhile, the body of the Managing Director, Fourscore Homes, Femis Osibona, has been recovered in the rubble of the collapsed Ikoyi building.
Fourscore Homes is the firm constructing the 21-storey building under construction which collapsed on Monday, on Gerrard Road in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The National Emergency Management Agency confirmed this last night. So far, authorities have announced 39 recovered bodies from the rubble.
