A survivor of the collapsed Elite Five Star Lodge in Amaokpala, near the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, has narrated how she jumped from the second floor to escape death after the building began to cave in.
The three-storey, 100-room student hostel collapsed on Sunday night, trapping several occupants beneath the rubble. Two people, a male and a female, lost their lives during rescue operations, while three others were rescued and taken to hospital for treatment.
Speaking from her hospital bed, 27-year-old Chinyere said she had lived in the hostel since March and never noticed any sign that the building was unsafe until loud cracking sounds echoed through the structure on the night of the incident.
She explained that she fled her room as the walls began to crack, rushed to the balcony, and jumped from the second floor, leaving all her belongings behind.
Another survivor, Grace Nweke, a student of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, said residents were warned shortly before the collapse after a food vendor alerted them through a WhatsApp group that cracks had appeared in the building.
She claimed that although many occupants attempted to escape immediately, they later discovered the building had allegedly been declared unsafe, with previous tenants reportedly asked to vacate before it was rented out again.
Inside Anambra state:
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Another resident, Joseph Udo, said he survived because he was visiting friends when the building collapsed. He returned after receiving a phone call and found the hostel reduced to rubble, with his belongings buried beneath the debris. He added that one of the victims was a recent graduate who was preparing for her wedding next month.
The Deputy Director of the Anambra State Emergency Management Agency, Ndidi Omega, described the tragedy as preventable, revealing that the building had already been marked for demolition. She stressed that unsafe structures should never remain occupied.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Government has announced tougher measures to improve building safety, including prosecuting public officials and engineers found negligent in cases of structural failure. It also directed integrity tests on mass housing facilities, including student hostels, to prevent future building collapse disasters.
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