The death toll from collapse of a 21-storey building in the Ikoyi area of Lagos on Monday has risen to 20 on Tuesday.
More people are still trapped in the rubbles.
At least 50 people were reportedly trapped in the collapsed building while less than five were rescued on the day of the incident.
On Tuesday afternoon a total of 10 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the building, while nine persons were rescued. The figured of dead bodies recovered increased to 20 on Tuesday evening.
However, experts said the rescue operation was slow, which will affect the number of people rescued alive from the wreckage 36 hours after the disaster.
They said inadequate manpower was affecting the rescue operation.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has set up an independent panel of enquiry to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the disaster, this is even as he suspended the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Gbolahan Oki.
Oki had said on Monday that the owner of the collapsed 21-storey building was given the approval to construct only 15 floors.
But the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Obafemi Hamzat, during his visit to the scene of the incident on Tuesday contradicted Okai
Hamzat said “This particular one was approved for 21 floors, not 15. If you count, the second building was 14 or 15. The approval was done about three years ago, it is not something new, it is the construction that failed apparently from what we can see.”
He also confirmed that the building was earlier sealed by the state government for four months over poor construction.
General Manager of Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA), Kehinde Osinaike, said no fewer than 67 commercial and residential buildings, as well as other structures were sealed on Tuesday for contravening physical planning regulations during an enforcement exercise carried out by the authority.
