How collapsed mosque killed 3, injured many

TRAGEDY strucked, as a 12-year-old girl identified as Haneefah Nurudeen and her friend, as well as another young person, were confirmed dead when a mosque building collapsed on Yusuf Street, Papa Ajao, Mushin. 

Residents attributed the collapse to alleged carelessness of the engineers constructing a nearby road.

Meanwhile, four persons who sustained injuries were rushed to the hospital, while four others were treated and discharged at the scene.

According to an eyewitness, the incident occurred when an excavator clearing silt evacuated from drainages along the road recklessly hit the mosque and it collapsed on worshippers as prayer was about to commence.

The incident threw the entire area into chaos as sympathizers and emergency responders embarked on rescue mission of trapped victims.

Speaking to our correspondent at the scene, an eye witness, Hamzat Aisha, said earlier in the day, her father had warned the contractor not to dig too deep into the ground, as it would affect the mosque adjacent to the construction site. 

She said: “My dad is a registered surveyor. In the morning, my dad met with the engineer in charge of the construction and told them that using an excavator for the road would affect the mosque. He even demarcated a place for them, so that it wouldn’t affect any buildings around. 

"My dad spent almost two hours with them, but they did not listen. One of my aunts, who was present when my dad was talking to them said they dug so deep that it reached the mosque’s wall.

“My pain is that, why couldn’t they wait until people stopped praying? For now, I know of a girl who died on the spot. Her name is Haneefah Nurudeen. 

"She was 12 years old and in JSS2. They haven’t informed her mom yet, but she already suspects that her daughter is dead. They have gone to bury her at the Agege burial ground. 

“For now, two people are dead because the teacher teaching Haneefah said her two students are dead.

“The Alfa who was leading the prayer is currently receiving treatment in the hospital.”

The Muslim cleric, popularly called Alfa, who was leading the prayer at the time of the incident, was under treatment.

The 32-year-old Muslim cleric,  who gave his name as Tunde Kazeem, but popularly known as Alfa  Jeje, said the incident happened at 1:10p.m., five minutes after they had finished praying. 

He said: “About 10 males were seriously injured. As the leader, when the building collapsed, I was rescuing people that I could despite my injuries. There were about 35 of us in the prayer session.

"The incident happened five minutes after we had finished praying. After rescuing as many people as I could, I took myself to the nearest hospital,” Tunde, a student of Lagos State Science and Technology, said.

Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, LASEMA, Dr. Femí Oke-Osanyitolu, who was at the scene to give support, confirmed that three persons died, while other trapped victims were rescued under the rubble during rescue operation.

According to Oke-Osanyintolu, “Upon arrival at the scene at 01:40p.m., a storey building was found to have collapsed. Preliminary investigation carried out upon arrival at the scene revealed that an excavator clearing the road recklessly hit a mosque (a storey building) by the road side which resulted to the mosque collapsing as prayer was about to commence."