My friend called me from underground, Eyewitness tells Pulse

The uncompleted building located in Jabi also sheltered Usman and his twelve colleagues.

As rescue operations progressed, Usman looked out for his friend, Kabir.

His hope was dashed.

“As I was coming back from the mosque, I saw a friend of mine who sells sugarcane. He told me that the place I was working had collapsed. I was confused,” Usman told in smattering English.

“As I came closer, I saw people running -. I then realized that there was trouble. I reached for my phone and called my friend, Kabir. His phone rang but he did not respond. He called later to say the heat was too much under the ground.

“I left him behind to go and pray because it was almost time for prayers; I was almost late.

“At 8pm, I called again, his number was no longer reachable. Kabir must have died,” Usman said as tears cascaded down his cheeks.

Kabir may not be the only one allegedly trapped under the rubble as eyewitnesses claimed the workers, food sellers and two engineers had not been rescued as at noon of Saturday, August 18, 2018.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said seven persons had been rescued.

“When the building collapsed, my friend who works and sleeps there was trapped. He is a wheelbarrow pusher,” said Danladi Musa, a petty trader at the site.

“Two Fulani women who sell ‘fura da nunu’ are still under the ground. One was asked to take the milk to the manager who was on the third floor when it happened. A woman who sells food was about entering the building when it happened. She threw away the food on her head and started running and crying.

“Seven or eight people were rescued and taken to the hospital yesterday but those were not all the people in the building. They were those at the top floor.

"Those who came for the rescue operation have not done any job because there are still a lot of people down; those mixing sand and cement, workers carrying it up, those building and some people who live on the ground floor in batchers (a term used for substandard wooden houses). There are almost 15 batchers where people sleep on the last floor. Lots of people live in those batchers,” Musa said, authoritatively.

Why the building collapsed

Multiple eyewitnesses who spoke to claimed the building had remained uncompleted for over fifteen years.

Azubuike Chinonso, a builder, blamed the collapse of the building on the use of substandard materials.

“This building has been here for more than 15 years,” Chinonso said. “The bearing of the land has problem. If the engineer knows that the bearing cannot carry the casting of foundation, they should have done more reinforcement before continuing.

“I tested the concrete and noticed a loss in the strength of the material. The ratio of mixing is not standard. The reinforcement from one level to the other is not standard. He should have demolished and began the building afresh,” he added.

Umar believed the foundation was too weak.

“The engineer had just taken delivery of a trailer of cement for construction work at the site when the building collapsed. The decking was over fifteen years before they started building again. The foundation and decking was already too weak,” he said.

Tension, protest, teargas

On Saturday morning, angry “family members” and friends had arrived the site of the collapsed building to demand intensified rescue operation.

Trouble however started when the NEMA officials said “there were no persons” under the debris.

A protest broke out.

Police officers were deployed to the area to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order.

But the situation soon got out of hand.

“Why will they say there is no person under the ground?”, a protester said.

“At about 6pm, one of the labourers under the ground called my friend to say that heat was too much and that someone should come and help him come out. I called the number over ten times this morning, there was no response. The phone rang and no one picked up. He probably would have died. No one should say that there’s no one under the ground because people are there.

“Even if it is their dead bodies, bring them out. Is it because they are poor? If it was a child of a Minister that was trapped inside the ground, will they just leave without bringing the child out? How can this type of thing happen in the Federal Capital Territory and they would leave just like that? This is not fair,” the protester added.

The protesters became confrontational with some of the agitated youths throwing sticks and stones to the road in an attempt to cause gridlock.

The Police fired some teargas canisters to disperse the protesters.

They disappeared.

At least, most of them.

NEMA DG visits site

About thirty minutes later, the director-general of NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, arrived the collapsed building site in company of some directors at the Agency.

After an assessment, Maihaja confirmed to journalists that seven persons had been rescued; 1 person dead, 1 critically injured and 5 others rescued alive.

The rescue operation has been called off.

Police officers were instructed to arrest scavengers who would want to prowl on the remnants of the rubble.

Osinbajo to the rescue

Meanwhile, Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, was at the site of the collapsed building on Friday evening.

Osinbajo who visited the scene at about 6.47 p.m on Friday, said that all hands were on deck to rescue and save the lives of those who could have been trapped in the building.

He said that all the agencies concerned were present, including the necessary equipment to rescue the trapped persons.

The FCT Minister, Mohammad Bello, says investigation is on to unravel the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the building.