Father, Two Daughters, Pharmacist, Others Perish Inside Dilimi Collapse Building In Jos, As Death Toll Rises To 11

Yakubu Busari

Following the collapsed of a 3 storey building on Monday in Dilimi Area of Jos North, the death toll has risen to 11, while five persons have been rescued, two are in critical conditions receiving treatment at Ola Hospital.

The Chairman of Jos North Local Government Area, Hon Philip Nyam Arin and the Commandant Nigeria Security Defense Corps NSCDC, Plateau State has confirmed that no fewer than 11 persons have died in collapsed building on Monday evening.

It was gathered that the building which houses Nalele pharmacy, a privately owned and also residential block of 2nd and 3rd floors collapsed around 4:30 pm on Monday.

The chairman frowned at the use of substandard materials where cheap building materials are used for building as he called on the engineering council of Nigeria to do the needful towards addressing the constant problems of building collapse in the country.

Arin said he is appealing to the residence of Jos north to urgently vacate waterways to prevent unnecessary death of citizens.

According to him, he warned those who build by blocking waterways or used substandard equipment in construction, adding that Jos North would LGA would soon set up a task force to demolish such buildings because we can’t afford to be losing human being at this time.

We have sponsored jingles on the radio to educate and enlighten the general public on the danger of building on drainages but my appeal now to everyone is to relocate to safer areas especially during the raining season.

Solomon Olasupo disclosed that he has deployed 24 hours surveillance since the time the command received emergency calls from one of their staff in Jos North.

We arrive the scene of the collapsed building whereby men kept vigilance to ensure that those who were trapped were rescued by some rescue workers of the Road Safety Corps, the Red Cross and other Islamic uniform first-aid groups were seen excavating the collapsed building, and recovering dead bodies.

He expressed displeasure with the magnitude of damage done where the owner of the edifice and his two daughters met their Waterloo, as while those trapped people included women and children.

A member of the Plateau State house of Assembly,  Hon. Ibrahim Baba Hassan, who was at the scene of incident confirmed that four persons were recovered dead, while three others were injured and Hospitalized.

“We have buried 10 dead bodies out of the eleven recovered inside the debris, Three others who are alive have been taken to hospital”.

“Professional rescue workers are doing their best to evacuate the debris of the collapsed building hoping to recover others that are trapped.

“Unfortunately, the story building was built on an old structure, and the materials used in the building were substandard,” he said.

Also, the North Central zone coordinator of, National Emergency Management Agency NEMA, Mr. Eugene Nyelong, confirmed the incident.

“I received a distress call that a building has collapsed, I have deployed our personnel and also called men of the fire service and civil defense to mobilize to the scene.

“I cannot at the moment confirm how many casualties, but our men are there trying to excavate,” he confirmed.

The victims were taken to the Plateau State specialist hospital.