LAGOS GOVERNMENT CALLS FAMILIES TO IDENTIFY BODIES FROM IKOYI BUILDING COLLAPSE, DEATH TOLL RISES TO 38

The Lagos State Government on Friday said dead bodies recovered from the Ikoyi collapsed building are ready for identification.

The state government said 38 bodies have been recovered so far from the collapsed building as rescue operation entered Day Four on Friday, while family members had submitted 32 names of those still missing.

Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Abenga Omotoso, while giving an update to the press, said the bodies would be ready for identification from 4pm on Friday at the IDH, Yaba.

Omotoso, who addressed the press conference in the company of the Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr Tayo Bambose Martins and Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, said an autopsy would be carried out on the corpses before releasing them to their families.

He said the autopsy is important because the law says that whenever there is death as a result of such incidents like the collapsed building, an autopsy must be done before the body is released.

The commissioner also debunked reports that the rescue operation team at the collapsed building stopped the search and rescue work on Thursday.

He said work was still ongoing and would continue until the government could account for everybody inside the building at time of collapse and certify that nobody is left behind in the collapsed building.