Five victims of Ikoyi building collapse yet to be identified, says pathologist

Sokunle Soyemi, a pathologist, says five bodies recovered from the 21-storey building which collapsed in Ikoyi are yet to be identified.

The high-rise collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos in November 2021, with over 40 bodies recovered, including that of Femi Osibona, owner of Fourscore Homes, the developing company in charge of the building.

Testifying at an Ikeja coroner’s court on Thursday, Soyemi, who is the acting chief medical examiner of Lagos state, said there were 50 victims of the collapsed building (47 males and three females).

He said 45 persons have been identified and their ages range from 18 to 56 years.

Autopsies on the bodies began on November 4, 2021, and lasted till November 13, 2021, according to Soyemi.

“So far, we have identified 45 bodies out of 50. The autopsies revealed that 40 deceased had multiple injuries as the cause of death,” he said.

“Six had injuries to the head alone and died. One had a bilateral fracture of the femur.”

According to the pathologist, the remains were placed in 53 bodybags — the three extra bodybags included body parts of the deceased.

Soyemi said since the bodies could not be physically recognised, samples had to be obtained from the remains for examination at the Lagos DNA and forensic centre.

“After about a month, we started receiving results from the lab. As we were receiving the results, we were also releasing the bodies to families and up till now, we are still releasing bodies,” he said.

“At present, of the 45 identified bodies, 42 have been released to family members while the remaining three have not been collected by family members.

“When there was a call for family members to come and donate samples, some people who were not related to the deceased came forward and the samples could not match.

“We had to call again for new samples from family members which came in about two weeks ago.”

Hearing has been adjourned till February 18 for continuation.