UPDATES WITH QUOTES BY GOVERNOR
By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) – Nigeria on Wednesday confirmed some persons are dead in the building collapse in the country’s commercial capital Lagos.
“We have rescued about 25 people and some are already dead,” Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of the Lagos State, told reporters at the scene of the incident, saying most of the dead were schoolchildren.
He did not specify the number of people killed in the incident.
The governor said the building wasn't approved for a school but for a residential purpose and the building was already marked for demolition because of structural defects.
Earlier, it was reported that dozens of schoolchildren were trapped and some of them feared dead, following the building collapse.
A spokesman for National Emergency Management Agency had told Anadolu Agency that a two-story kindergarten building on Lagos Island caved in at about 10 a.m. local time (0900GMT).
Building collapse is not uncommon in Nigeria owing to what officials called substandard materials and non-adherence to regulations.
At least 115 persons — including 84 foreigners — died in a similar building collapse in 2014 at a popular church in Lagos.
*Olarewaju Kola in Maiduguri contributed to this story.
