UPDATED: ’45 dead, 117 rescued’ in Synagogue collapse

The death toll in the Synagogue Church guest house building collapse of Friday has risen to 45, south-west public relations officer of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, has confirmed.

Faloye earlier gave the number of the dead as 17 and the rescued as 111.

NAN quoted him as saying that the figures represented an update of his earlier report of Saturday morning, which put the number rescued at 109 and the dead at 16.

But on Sunday evening, he said: “We were able to work overnight and so, as at now (6pm), we have 130 rescued alive and 45 dead.”

He said among those rescued was a child whose age was between 10 and 12 years and that they were rushed to one of the state government hospitals where they were admitted.

Farinloye said the collapsed structure was a five-storeyed building, which was initially two-storeyed until the church decided to add three additional floors.

He explained that the remaining three floors were still being worked on when it collapsed, while the finished floors were being used as chalets for visitors from outside the country.

However, speculations continue to mount that the death toll is higher and the church is only downplaying the injury and death figures.

A resident of the area had told TheCable that ambulances kept on lifting “dead and injured people” out of the headquarters of the church “all through the night”.

Also, both at the hospital and the church, journalists were barred from getting anywhere close to places where they could independently verify the information they were supplied.