Synagogue Death Toll Now 49, Sniffer Dogs Fail To Arrive

Although the Nigeria Police authorities yesterday deployed sniffer dogs to the scene of last Friday’s collapsed building owned by the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN in Ikotun area of Lagos, with a view to assisting rescue workers locate the exact positions of trapped victims, the handlers came without the special breed canines.

The vehicle said to be conveying the dogs to the scene reportedly broke down midway, thereby depriving rescue operators of their use.

An optimistic South West Spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, however said; ‘’All things being equal, the rescue operation will be concluded by say 2.00pm tomorrow (Today).’’

This is as the death toll rose to 49,with the recovery of additional five dead bodies between 5am and 5.35pm yesterday.

However during the course of search and rescue, electrical items under the debris , according to the Lagos State Fire Service, resulted in a fire outbreak.

As at 1.40pm, excavation work was close to the second floor where majority of the victims were believed to have been trapped. But locating their exact positions became a challenge, as some of the rescue workers said that there was every likely hood that the excavator might cause more damage if proper care was not taken.

Meanwhile, 24 hours after the visit of Governor Babatunde Fashola to the scene of the collapsed building, SCOAN as gathered, was yet to produce the approval for the collapsed building.

It would be recalled that during the visit, the Lagos State Commissioner for Physical planning, Mr Toyin Ayinde, revealed that the 5-storey building had no government approval for its construction.

Ayinde who said records in his office showed that no permit was handed to the civil engineers for the building to be erected, however added that he was awaiting the church engineers to present the building permit they were given to erect the collapsed building.