President
Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday morning paid a visit to the site of the collapsed
six-storey building of the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Ikotun, Lagos.
The President said the primary purpose of his visit was to
condole with the founder of the church, Temitope Joshua and the families of the
more than 80 people that lost their lives in the building that collapsed
penultimate Friday.
Jonathan, who said he would not comment on the possible
cause of the building collapse, disclosed that the Federal Government had made
an arrangement to have a meeting with governments at all levels on how to
forestall such an accident.
The President said, “I came to look at the site and express
my personal condolence and that of the Federal Government to the church, to the
founder of the church and especially to the bereaved families of the people
that have died. And as we (have) read in the papers, a number of them are not
Nigerians but from other countries, especially South Africa. I spoke with the
President of South Africa on Thursday to express my personal condolence and
that of the Federal Government.
“The issue of the cause of the collapse is not what I can
comment on since investigation is going on but we’ll work with people to make
sure we don’t experience such collapse again, if it is something within the
government’s capacity.
“I spoke with the governor of Lagos (Babatunde Fashola)
yesterday. We are going to have a meeting with all the governors and local
government chairmen to see how government can offer assistance in terms of
advisory issues to people who are building high-rise houses, so that if it is
technical issues, we will be able to manage them. But primarily, my coming here
is to express my condolence to Prophet Joshua, the Synagogue of All Nations and
the bereaved families.”
Meanwhile, Pretoria’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu
Mnguni, told the Agence-France Presse on Saturday that the number of South
Africans that died in the collapse is now 84.
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