Two Children Die in Lagos Building Collapse

Rebecca Ejifoma

Two children, Gbolahan and Olayinka Atolagbe, died on Saturday after a fence partially collapsed on their building following the heavy downpour in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.

The children, a male and a female, who were siblings, were aged seven and nine.

They were trapped underneath the crumbled walls at 11.30 am at 25 Ajao Street, CWC, Ishawo. 

According to the Southwest Zonal Coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, their bodies have been recovered.

He narrated: “The Children were trapped when a fence from the neighbouring house fell on their building during the heavy downpour.”

Farinloye, however, described the situation as tragic because distressed calls were not adequately channeled to those whose responsibility was to save the children at the right time.

Reacting to their unfortunate death, the father of the deceased, Mr. Ahmed Atolagbe, told journalists he wasn’t at home when the incident happened. 

He said: “I left home in the morning to work. I was at the shop when someone called me that water passing through the building beside our house drenched the wall, which fell on my house and killed my two children.”

Atolagbe, who said he had been living in the house for 10 years now, decried the demise of his children. 

Officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) were on ground to assess the situation.