A week after an uncompleted Guest House owned by The Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos killing over 80 people, another church building has caved in at Egor local government area of Edo state.
The collapse of the one-storey building, owned by the Christ Chosen Church of God, is feared to have led to the death of three people whose identities are yet to be determined.
Witnesses said the incident occurred at about 12.45pm on Friday.
The Edo State Commissioner of Police, Foluso Adebanjo, told journalists one person has been confirmed dead while five others were rescued alive, with injuries.
He said there were however speculations that two more people were still trapped in the rubbles.
“One is unfortunately dead. Though there are rumours that we still have two people there; of course, there is absolute calm for now,” Mr. Adebanjo said.
The collapse of the building almost resulted in chaos as some angry youth torched a bus owned by the church in protest of the incident.
Witnesses also insisted that at least three people might have died although rescue work is continuing late into the evening.
The church authorities are yet to speak on the incident.
Our correspondent however gathered that the collapsed building was an old residential building within the church premises, quite different from the auditorium the church uses for worship and other activities.
The building, it was further gathered, was being demolished by youths hired by the church before it collapsed on the workmen.
“The owner of Christ Chosen Church Deliverance Centre told us to demolish the building because they wanted more space in the compound,” one of the workmen who survived said.
“But some of us went out to eat because we were hungry. As we were eating, we saw many people rush 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.”
He continued, “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 was brought out and two others are still under the building, dead. 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 the work that the building fell.”
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