Three helicopters hovered over Synagogue building before the collapse

A member of the media team of the Synagogue Church for All Nations in Ikotun, Lagos, Mr. Oladapo Bankole, has alleged that three helicopters hovered over the six-storey building, which collapsed on Friday 20 minutes before the building came down. Bankole, who spoke with newsmen a few hours after the building gave way, said three helicopters were seen at about 1pm hovering above the building, which was under construction. He added that one of the helicopters came close to the uncompleted building, noting that the building collapsed 20 minutes after the unidentified helicopters flew over the building. According to Bankole, the building involved is standing between the two canteens of the church. At the time of the incident, he said some construction workers were at work while some children were around the canteen. Bankole said as of 3pm, no fewer than 25 persons had been evacuated and taken to various hospitals including the General Hospitals at Isolo and Igando. He explained that since the church was not envisaging the accident, the identification of the helicopters was not noted. He however did not confirm the number of casualties in the building collapse. He said, “For now, we don’t have the casualty figure because the Lagos State Emergency Agency has taken over the site, but as of 3pm, we were able to evacuate about 25 persons through the emergency unit. There were three children involved; fortunately the three of them are alive, no foreigner was involved. “We are still trying to understand what the mission of the helicopters was; we weren’t expecting the accident, so we didn’t pay attention so as to the identify the helicopters.” Culled from Pnch Newspaper