TB Joshua building collapses, kills 40 TB Joshua
Prophet TB Joshua

Prophet TB Joshua

LAGOS — The number of people killed in the collapse of a guest house under construction at the Lagos headquarters of one of Nigeria’s best-known Christian evangelical pastors rose to 41 yesterday, rescuers said, as they worked to clear the wreckage.
The five-storey building in the Ikotun neighbourhood of Lagos collapsed on Friday, and Ibrahim Farinloye said some 130 people had been pulled out alive with varying degrees of injury.

Local media showed a mound of flattened concrete and twisted steel wires at the compound belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, which is headed by “Prophet” TB Joshua, who has followers across Africa and around the world.

“We have 41 dead now,” Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman in Lagos for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said.
On Friday after the collapse, members of the church had at first prevented emergency officials from participating in the rescue, making it difficult to establish a toll for the dead and injured. But state rescuers were allowed in on Saturday.

“We’re still working at the site,” said Farinloye, adding he expected the clear-up would extend into today.
Eemergency services officials said the lower two floors of the building located in the large church compound had already been operating as a guest house, and it appeared construction work was underway to add three more floors

TB Joshua yesterday finally talked to journalists in a private session and blamed terror attack for the Synagogue guest house collapse.
He was speaking to journalists in a session in which cameras and all forms of electronic recordings were banned.

According to sources he also revealed a CCTV recording which showed events before and after the building collapsed.
According to those who saw the video, a plane was seen hovering over the building four times from 11:30AM, 11:43AM, 11:45AM and 11:54AM before the building collapsed with nothing triggering it.

At around 12:44PM on the plane’s trip over the building, the building then gave way and collapsed.
TB Joshua said: “In a few weeks, the truth behind the collapsed building will be revealed. The last time the Boko Haram issue occurred, some journalists and the police were against the church, but, after some weeks, the truth behind the attack was revealed.

“I do not want to put fear in the minds of Nigerians. We are still battling with the Ebola virus disease, EVD. That is why I decided to delay my comment till now.”
He then requested the journalists present in the session to watch and analyse the video and make their own conclusion.

He said that it was uncommon for a building with a very solid foundation to just come down the way the building collapsed.
He said: “I was at the mountain, yesterday, where I went to pray. After praying, I slept off. The place is about five minutes drive from here. While there, my members called me to say there was a plane trying to land. I told them not to worry that only a helicopter could land, but they said they were worried as it was coming too close to the building, that maybe it was taking pictures.

“The same jet went around Ikotun. To our surprise, after flying round Ikotun, it now came back on top of this building four times, it’s here they would show you. As we are talking now, there is a surveillance camera in here. We have a role to play, we cannot leave everything to God.”

He also rejected the NEMA revelation that their men were stopped from working on the site and rescuing more individuals trapped in the fallen building.
He said that no one from his church attacked government officials, saying, “We know the importance of the rescue team and journalists. The pressmen are the mouth-piece of the public and I have a lot of regard for the media.”

Meanwhile, a Nigerian Air Force jet has been missing for two days after disappearing in the country’s far northeast, where troops are fighting Boko Haram insurgents, the military has said.

A search and rescue operation was underway for the Alpha jet which was on a routine operational mission on Friday over Adamawa state when contact was lost with the aircraft, the Nigerian armed forces said in a statement.

The aircraft, with two pilots on board, left its base in Yola, Adamawa state at about 0945GMT on Friday and had been expected back by midday the same day.
“Since then all efforts to establish contact with the aircraft have not yielded any positive result,” military spokesman, Chris Olukolade, said in a statement, without providing further details.

Boko Haram has seized territory in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe state in recent weeks, raising fears about loss of government control in the far northeast and putting the military under pressure to put an end to the five-year-long armed movement .

Nigeria’s military, backed by war planes, has been fighting to push back recent advances by Boko Haram into the north of Adamawa state and also towards Maiduguri, the state capital of neighbouring Borno state. The army said it beat back an attack outside the city of Maiduguri on Friday.

Boko Haram, which has killed thousands since it launched its anti-government rebellion in the northeast in 2009, has in recent weeks captured and held a string of towns and villages in the region, a departure from its usual hit-and-run tactics.

Its leader, Abubakar Shekau, is apparently trying to follow the example of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which has declared its own caliphate. — Reuters/Osundefender/Al Jazeera

 

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