- A couple and their three-year-old child escaped with serious injuries from the tragedy
- Government to foot the medical bills of the victims
A 13-year-old schoolgirl was on Tuesday killed as a 120-year-old building collapsed in Igede-Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
However, a couple and their three-year-old child escaped with serious injuries from the tragedy.
The cause of the collapse of the building was not immediately stated but sources said the building had previously been marked for demolition by officials of the local government.
As soon as the building fell at about 2 a.m., neighbours rushed in to rescue the trapped family members and took the injured victims to the hospital.
A senior official of the Ekiti State Emergency Management Authority (EKSEMA), Funmilola Laka, said officials of the agency were also at the scene to help with the rescue operations.
She said the 13-year-old dead victim was a student of a public secondary school in the town.
Mrs Laka said the agency had commenced investigations on the matter.
Meanwhile, the state deputy governor, Monisade Afuye, on Wednesday, visited the site of the collapsed building.
She described the incident as “devastating and agonising,” calling on occupants of dilapidated buildings across the state to relocate to safeguard their lives.
Mrs Afuye also visited Adeyinka Adebayo General Hospital in Iyin Ekiti, where the injured survivors were receiving medical care.
She said the government would foot the medical bills of the victims while directing EKSEMA to provide alternative accommodation for the affected family.
Mrs Afuye also said the state Ministry of Physical and Urban Planning would begin aggressive enforcement of the relevant laws to evict residents of distressed buildings in the state.
“This is one incident that really saddened my heart. How could we lose precious human life to such an avoidable circumstance? The building must have been giving some signs for long,” the governor lamented.
“If you check very well, the adjoining buildings are not even safe. The government agents will visit here soon to assess those houses and probably pull them down.
“We have enough regulations and extant laws that guide building residency in Ekiti and our people should comply while trying to apply these laws; it is for their own benefit, which is to ensure safety and avoidable loss of the precious lives of our people.”
Lanre Olagunju, one of the sons of the owner of the house, told the entourage of the deputy governor that the building did not show signs of distress before it suddenly collapsed.
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