It stood for over 30 years. Yesterday, it took eight lives in minutes. And one woman’s decision to skip a phone shop trip might have saved her life.

As reported by cbinews.tv, heartbreak unfolded in Satellite Town, Lagos, yesterday after a three-storey building near Alakija Bus Stop on the Lagos-Badagry Expressway came crashing down around 11:00 a.m.

The numbers are grim: eight people confirmed dead, 26 others pulled out alive. Emergency teams from NEMA, LSFRS, and LASEMA raced to the scene, with Ijegun-Egba Fire Station crews arriving by 11:49 a.m. to join the rescue efforts.

The building wasn’t just flats. Residents say it was a proper community hub — cyber cafés, a photo studio, phone repair shops, network outlets, a bookshop, even office spaces. And at over 30 years old, it was one of the area’s oldest structures.

One woman told cbinews.tv she dodged death by pure luck. She’d planned to swap phones at a shop inside but went to a meeting instead. She nearly left when it started late — then thought better of it. She even rang someone inside to join her. Fifteen minutes after they left, the building collapsed.

“I called him out of that building,” she said. “That call saved us.”

But others weren’t so lucky. That phone shop was always packed, so witnesses fear more people could still be unaccounted for. One occupant had been warned to leave on Wednesday by a friend. He stayed.

The scenes were raw. A mother who lost her child was in tears, blaming herself for waking the child to come to the shop. Families wailed. Others scrambled through the chaos trying to salvage what little they could from the rubble.

NEMA’s Lagos Head of Operations, Mohammed Olatunde, didn’t mince words when speaking to Cbinew.tv. “The structural integrity of the building had been compromised,” he said. “We learnt that the building had shown signs of imminent collapse for days, but the occupants remained inside. The collapse was bound to happen.” He also noted the rain was making rescue efforts even harder.

LASEMA’s Director of Operations, Olatunde Akinsanya, echoed that. “There was a structural defect in the building. We learnt that even the staircases were shaking, but people remained in the building,” he said.

Resident Stanley reckons the weekly environmental sanitation exercise actually kept the death toll lower than it could’ve been. Still, tragedy struck — a father and son were rescued, but the dad was unconscious. An 18-year-old also lost their life.

Shop owner Chidinma Asogwa said many traders had returned early before sanitation ended. “The occupants were told to vacate the building on Monday,” she added. “But it collapsed today.”

Attribution: cbinews.tv

Hashtags:

#LagosNews #BuildingCollapse #SatelliteTown #NEMA #LASEMA #NigeriaNews #BreakingNews #LagosBadagryExpressway #PublicSafety #CBINewstv