At least 100 people were killed by the collapse of a church in southeastern Nigeria, a resident and photojournalist who visited the town morgue said yesterday, a day after the incident.
“At Uyo teaching hospital where I am now I could see more than a hundred corpses, many are heaped on top off each other on the floor,” said photojournalist Ini Samuel. “Eye witnesses also said yesterday that corpses were packed in four each bag.”
Gary Ubong, a resident, said the church’s roof had collapsed on worshippers while a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of government officials.
“I saw more than 100 dead bodies brought out on loaders,” said Ubong, who said he had rushed to the scene after the accident. “I also went to two hospitals and saw heaps of dead bodies difficult to count.”
State police spokeswoman Cordelia Nwawe said 27 had been killed and 30 injured when the Reigners Bible church in Akwa Ibom state capital Uyo collapsed during a service on Saturday.
State emergency agency NEMA said in a statement that six people had been killed and 115 injured.
State governor Udom Emmanuel, who escaped unhurt from the church service, ordered the arrest of the building contractor, state news agency NAN said.
The Reigners Bible church was packed on late on Saturday morning when the roof – which was still under construction – collapsed on the congregation.
The incident took place around 11am, some 30 minutes into the service, a survivor told local media from his Ibom Specialist Hospital bed.
“Suddenly, the roof from the middle fell on worshippers. The governor was quickly rescued. But others were not that lucky,” he said.
Buildings collapses are frequent in the West African nation and often blamed by officials on lack of construction permits and the use of cheap materials amid widespread corruption.
Akwa Ibom state governor Emmanuel Udom, who survived the disaster, declared two days of official mourning and said a ceremony honouring the victims would be held today.
“We have never had such a shocking incident in the history of our dear state,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Police, soldiers, firefighters and volunteers joined with construction workers to dig through the rubble inside the building.
“Rescue team members are doing their best to rescue all the victims trapped at the collapsed building,” police spokeswoman Cordelia Nwawe said.
Uyo’s university hospital said all its doctors had been called in to manage the emergency, and the head of the regional branch of the Nigerian Medical Association called for a blood drive to help the victims.
“We still need more blood. You must not underestimate the number of lives that your blood donation will save,” Aniekeme Aniefiok Uwah said in a statement.
Police spokeswoman Nwawe officers were being “particularly attentive to keeping the situation under control and keeping looters from accessing the accident site”.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari expressed “the deep sorrow of his family, the government and the entire people of Nigeria over the many deaths and injury recorded following the incident”, his spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.
Critics say Nigerian authorities tend to understate the death toll at such accidents or suicide bombings by the Boko Haram militant group in the north of the country.
During at gas plant blast in southern Nigeria a year ago the presidency said “tens of people” had been killed while witnesses counted more than 100 bodies.
Police had then just confirmed eight dead.
According to Gallup International, Nigeria is the world’s second most religious country, with a notable rise in the number of evangelical churches.
In September 2014, 116 people, were killed in Lagos in the collapse of a church belonging to the famous televangelist TB Joshua.
The inquest verdict attributed the collapse of the six-storey guesthouse to structural failures and said it did not have planning permission.
The preacher is due to face charges of criminal negligence but the trial has yet to start.
The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry, one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Nigeria, has one of the largest church auditoriums in the world with a seating capacity of 500,000.




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