The FCT Emergency Management Department (FEMD) said it recovered seven dead bodies of iron scavengers who invaded the site of a demolished building in Sabon Lugbe, a suburb of Abuja.
Director of the department, Mr. Abdulrahman Mohammed, who disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), at the site yesterday added that two other victims were receiving medical attention at the Federal Medical Centre.
According to him, the activities of over 500 iron scavengers who invaded the demolished building, pulling down and carting away iron rods, triggered the remains of demolished slab to fall on them.
Mohammed, who said rescue operation had been completed at the site, debunked reports in some sections of the media that a multi-storey building collapsed in the suburb on Saturday with more than 40 persons trapped under the rubble.
He said the building was among the illegally erected uncompleted structures, demolished by the FCT Department of Development Control on Thursday. “The scavengers invaded the site in a bid to get iron rods when the remaining part of the demolished structure caved in.
“Nobody is living in the building as claimed by reports. “We were here last night and we are here today again. The Chairman of Miyetti Allah in the Abuja municipal was here with us and he confirmed that they lost five of their members in the incidence.
As you can see, nobody is fighting here as claimed by some people,” he said Mohammed expressed his disappointment at the activities of the scavengers, who were still ravaging other demolished building in-spite of the tragic incidence A Police Officer at the site, told NAN that the scavengers invaded the site after the Development Control Dept.
had completed the demolition exercise. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity said the media report on collapsed multistorey building trapping over 40 people was fake.
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