Mother, Four Children Die as Three-Storey Building Collapses in Ilorin

A mother and four of her children have been confirmed dead after a section of a three-storey building collapsed on a family at Popo Giwa, Ilorin, Kwara State, on Tuesday morning.

The tragic incident occurred at about 5 a.m. at No. 41 Popo Giwa Street, beside Gogoro Mosque, where eight members of the same family were trapped beneath the rubble.

Four persons, including the father of the family, were rescued alive, while the mother and four of her children lost their lives.

The Public Relations Officer of the Kwara State Fire Service, Hassan Adekunle, confirmed the casualty figure.

“We have recovered four people dead and rescued four people,” Adekunle said.

He explained that the Fire Service received a distress call at about 5 a.m. and immediately mobilised to the scene to begin rescue operations.

“We immediately mobilised to the scene and commenced the rescue operation. This kind of situation is not something the fire service can handle alone,” he said.

An excavator was later deployed as emergency workers and volunteers cleared the rubble in a desperate effort to reach those trapped.

One of the survivors was identified as Firdaus, the second-to-last child of the family.

A volunteer involved in the rescue operation, who identified himself simply as Abdul, said the building collapsed while members of the family were just waking up.

According to him, rescuers first recovered the mother and her youngest child, believed to be between five and seven years old, dead from beneath the rubble.

“We brought out the mother with her last child of about five to seven years on her chest, dead. The building collapsed on the bed they slept on,” Abdul said.

He said rescuers later heard the voice of the father, who had gone to the toilet to perform ablution before the collapse.

“That was his saving grace. It was only the wood that was part of the old building that prevented a big pillar from smashing him. We had to dig to pull him out,” he added.

Abdul said the father was a serving military officer who was on medical leave.

He also disclosed that the eldest daughter among the deceased was a student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and was expected to commence her National Youth Service Corps programme on Thursday.

The Secretary of the Kwara State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Magaji Saadudeen, confirmed that all eight persons trapped were members of the same family.

He said the four survivors were taken to hospital for treatment, while the bodies of the deceased were evacuated from the scene.

The Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Ojo Adekimi, said preliminary findings showed that the collapsed section was the boys' quarters of the three-storey building.

“It was a three-storey building that collapsed. Our findings showed that it was the boys' quarters of the building that collapsed. Information gathered revealed that eight people were trapped in the building,” Adekimi said.

He added that occupants of the main building had been evacuated pending a comprehensive structural assessment.

“For now, the situation is under control. We will examine the remaining buildings and see how people can be secured. But for now, we have evacuated everybody from the main building,” he said.

Adekunle said the actual cause of the collapse had yet to be established, stressing that experts would need to conduct a proper assessment before conclusions could be drawn.

“We are only here to ascertain the actual cause of this collapse and rescue the trapped victims. At the appropriate time, we will communicate our findings to the media,” he said.

He added that appropriate action would be taken if the assessment showed that the building required demolition, while occupants would be advised accordingly if the structure was found to be safe.

Representing Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq at the scene, the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Lawal Olohungbebe, described the incident as tragic and commiserated with the bereaved family.

“The rescue mission began immediately after the collapse and, by the grace of God, some were rescued, but unfortunately, we have to take it as this,” he said.

Olohungbebe noted that the accessibility of the road leading to the building aided emergency responders in carrying out the rescue operation.

“One of the things that made it very easy for us to rescue the few people we were able to rescue is the access route,” he said.

He urged residents and property developers to comply with building and town planning regulations, especially requirements for accessible roads and proper building standards.

Also speaking, the Chairman of Ilorin West Local Government Area, AbdulRahman Babatunde Ladan, said between six and seven ambulances were deployed to assist in evacuating victims.

He urged residents to promptly report visible structural defects and evacuate buildings whenever they observed signs of danger.

“Whenever you discover something like this, please escalate it. Get to the point of evacuating yourself and your family members from that building. Life is the priority,” Ladan said.

Several emergency and security agencies, including the Kwara State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, the Fire Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, the police, the Nigerian Red Cross Society and health officials, participated in the rescue operation.

The tragedy has thrown residents of Popo Giwa into mourning as authorities continue investigations to determine the cause of the collapse and assess the safety of the remaining sections of the building.