According to witnesses, the building on Gerard Road trapped roughly 50 people under the rubble.

Residents and family members of those trapped under the rubble descended on the scene on Tuesday, enraged with the slow pace of rescue efforts.

Excavators and other heavy equipment took nearly four hours to arrive at the scene on Monday.

A relative, who did not want to be identified, said he has three siblings in the building that collapsed. He was spotted sobbing and pleading with security personnel to let him and other men help with the operation.

Another cousin said that his older brother, an engineer, is still buried beneath the wreckage.

“His name is Engineer Efe Martins, and he’s been with them for one month. He sent us a picture of the building where he was working at 1:04 p.m. on Monday. He was downstairs having a meeting with the proprietor, the property’s principal – owner because he had recently fired a worker and was trying to rehire him.”

He stated that his brother is 54 years old and their parents’ firstborn son.

The Lagos State government sent more equipment and personnel to the scene of the incident on Tuesday.

Gbolahan Oki, the general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, (LASBCA) was also suspended by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Tuesday.

On Monday, Mr. Oki claimed that the collapsed building had only been approved for 15 floors and that substandard materials were utilized in its construction.

Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, on the other hand, rejected the claim, claiming that the government had approved the construction of a 21-story skyscraper.

The Lagos State government has promised to pay the medical bills of the victims who were rescued from a building that collapsed in the state’s Ikoyi area on Monday.

This came as the state reaffirmed its commitment to save as many people as possible from the rubble alive.

According to a statement released by the state government on Tuesday, the state’s Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, revealed this while engaging with journalists and relatives of the victims during government agencies’ monitoring of continuing search and rescue activities.

“The Deputy Governor, who was accompanied to the site by top government officials, said the focus of government, for now, is to ensure that the ongoing rescue operations yield positive results such that those still trapped in the rubble are brought out alive,” the statement said.

Hamzat was quoted as saying, “Nine people have been rescued alive and taken to the hospital while 20 dead bodies have been recovered. Out of the nine survivors, three have been discharged from the hospital while six are in stable condition and are doing well. The focus of the operation right now is to rescue those that are trapped.”

According to the statement, “Hamzat also stated that it will be difficult to ascertain the number of the trapped victims, noting that the building is still under construction and not yet occupied.

“He emphasised that the state government would not relent in its efforts at ensuring that buildings under construction in Lagos are subjected to structural integrity tests to prevent issues of building collapse.

“The Deputy Governor, who also led other top government officials to the Lagos General Hospital, Marina, where the survivors are being treated, promised that the State Government will take full responsibility for the treatment and medical bills of rescued victims of the Ikoyi building collapse.”