Ikoyi Building Collapse: Corpse of developer, Osibona, ‘retrieved from rubble’

05 Nov Ikoyi Building Collapse: Corpse of developer, Osibona, ‘retrieved from rubble’

The dead body of the developer of the collapsed 21-storey building at Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, Femi Osibona, was retrieved from the rubble on Wednesday.

A source told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Mr Osibona’s body was among dead bodies exhumed from the collapsed building on Wednesday and taken to public mortuary at Yaba.

There is no official confirmation yet on Mr Osibona, but a close friend of his, Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation Magazine, mourned him on his Instagram page on Thursday night.

Mr Momodu posted: “Good night, my very dear friend and brother, Femi Fourscore Osibona…RIP.”

On Tuesday, Mr Momodu shared a video of his wife, Mobolaji, in the company of the deceased and three Italians at the top floor of the collapsed building.

“MOBOLAJI and I have been inundated with calls from families, friends and others asking if we were fine… We thank everyone for their concerns but we can’t be exactly fine when we have friends and staff who are still being rescued from the site of the building collapse,” Mr Momodu captioned the video.

NAN gathered that more than 39 dead bodies had so far been retrieved from the rubble as of Wednesday evening.

Many people are still believed to be trapped in the rubble, including a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Ola Ogunfuwa.

The RCCG pastor in-charge of Living Water Parish in Ibafo, Ogun State, was working as a contractor on the project, but had been missing four days after the building collapse.

The South-west Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye, earlier confirmed that 32 dead bodies had been recovered, and nine others rescued with injuries.