A 90-year-old woman, Mrs Rhoda Olom, has been killed while six grandchildren escape death in a collapsed building at the Fanibi area of Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The six grandchildren of the late nonagenarian, who were with her when the incident happened, were reportedly injured in the incident, which occurred around 3 am on Tuesday.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that the entire house did not collapse, but an apartment of the old building, where the deceased and her grandchildren were living.
It was gathered that the collapsed apartment was attached to the main building from the back a few years back, without an approval from the state government.
The son of the deceased woman, Mr Benson Olom, said his five children were rescued from the building.
“The building collapsed and my mother died instantly; her remains have been taken out.
“The landlord recently tampered with the beam of the building; he said he wanted to turn the downstairs to a flat without making proper provisions to sustain the building.
“One of my children, who sustained a head injury, was taken to a hospital and I was told that she was going to undergo surgery. I want the government and well-meaning Nigerians to come to my rescue,” he added.
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An occupant of the house, Mr Adedayo Jayeoba, said the building collapsed while everyone was asleep.
He said, “We saw that the apartment had already cracked and this morning, it collapsed and killed the grandma. So, we had to rush here to rescue the grandchildren of the deceased. Immediately, we reported the matter to the government; they came to take the corpse to the mortuary, while the police arrested the landlord.”
A leader of the monitoring team of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering of Nigeria, Mr Ojo Abayomi, said the collapsed apartment was an illegal structure and quality materials were not used to erect it.
One of the surviving grandchildren, James, said he was not in the house when the incident happened.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, who visited the scene of the incident in the company of the Fanibi Divisional Police Officer, confirmed the arrest of the landlord, adding that investigation had commenced into the incident.
