The death toll from the collapse of the guesthouse of Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN) in Lagos has risen to 115, South African government minister in charge of response to the disaster, Jeff Radebe said yesterday just as he urged the Federal Government to investigate the “tragedy”.The BBC quoted
Radebe as saying that out of the 115, 84 South Africans from visiting church groups were killed. A South African government spokeswoman, Phumla Williams told AP in a separate report that Nigeria provided the updated death toll. “There is a team that is working with the Nigerians there,” said Williams, who spoke after a plane carrying South Africans who were injured in the disaster arrived in South Africa.
But AP said spokesman for the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Ibrahim Farinloye said he was unable to confirm the South African government report of 115 dead. Last week, NEMA said the total death toll was 86 but refused to comment on nationalities of those who died.
No explanation was given for the discrepancy. But Farinloye had said church officials prevented rescuers from working at the building site in the critical few hours immediately after the collapse. The church denied allegations that it did not cooperate, AP reported.
The Sept 12 disaster may open up a diplomatic rift between Nigeria and South Africa. According to BBC, South Africans are angry at what they see as the Nigerian government dragging its feet on launching an investigation into the collapse and for not reacting more quickly to help those trapped under the rubble. Radebe spent much of his news conference congratulating the work of South African emergency workers for the “biggest evacuation by the air force since the dawn of democracy”.
He did not mention the efforts of Nigerian emergency services, NEMA or the church but said Nigeria was carrying out an investigation, although President Goodluck Jonathan has not announced any probe. “We are keenly awaiting as a South African government the investigation that is being conducted by the Nigerian government so that we get to the bottom of the cause of … this national disaster,” Radebe said.
South Africa’s media has been scathing of the founder of the church T.B. Joshua and the Nigerian government, especially after the Nigerian emergency services said the church had failed to cooperate and had blocked rescuers’ access to the site. “Blood on their hands” was the front page headline of South Africa’s Sunday Times.
According to AFP, twenty-six injured South African survivors were repatriated home yesterday. A 19-member medical team including specialised doctors, nurses and medical military paramedics took care of the injured on board.
Radebe revised the numbers of injured that arrived to 25 because one had chosen to return to the church in Lagos, AFP reported. The plan was to bring back all the 26, but “there were only 25 who actually boarded the aircraft because one returned to the synagogue yesterday,” said Radebe.
The patients were evacuated from Lagos on a plane “equipped to treat critically injured patients,” said Radebe. A 19-member medical team including specialised doctors, nurses and medical military paramedics took care of the injured on board.
On arrival, the patients were carried on stretchers to ambulances and transferred to one of the country’s top government hospitals, the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria. Two surviving toddlers were seen being carried from the plane by military social officers, AFP added. T.B. Joshua on Sunday pledged to visit South Africa to meet survivors and their families.
