20th September, 2014
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
At least one person have been confirmed dead in a collapsed storey building belonging to Christ Chosen Church of God located at Usama street, Uzebu quarters in Benin, capital of Edo state.
The dead person was pulled out of the rubble after about three hours after a rescue operation by sympathisers.
Three of the nine workers allegedly hired by the church at N3000 per day to demolish the building which served as offices and living quarters to officials of the church, were said to have just stepped out of the building to eat when it suddenly collapsed on those still working.
As at the time of filling this report, two persons were still trapped in the debris while the three who were rescued alive were brought out with broken limbs.
One of the survivors who refused to gave his name, confirmed that authorities of the church hired them to demolish the building manually.
“They asked us to destroy the building. We didn’t have money to eat and a boy asked us to join him for lunch. Four workers were still inside the church when it came down. We had demolished the upper part and they were removing the blocks when the building came down. We did not see the pastor and others again but they were here when the building collapsed,” he said.
Angry residents set a bus belonging to the church ablaze and destroyed the main church auditorium. They blamed the church for resorting to manual labour to demolish the building when they could have hired an excavator.
P.M. NEWS reports that a two storey building belonging to a pentecostal church pastor also collapsed last Wednesday at Ekpoma, the administrative headquarters of Esan West local government area of the state.
No life was however lost in the collapsed building.