The number of South Africans known to have died in the collapse of a multi-storey mega-church in Lagos last week has risen to 84, the country’s High Commissioner to Nigeria said yesterday.
“The number has risen from 67 to 84, with more bodies discovered on Thursday,” Lulu Mnguni told AFP, adding that the toll could rise.
“The number of South Africans who were in the church might be higher, as we believe that some people organised the trip themselves without using travel agents,” Mnguni
said.
A multi-storey hotel linked to controversial preacher and televangelist, T.B. Joshua, collapsed last Friday, but it was Tuesday before Zuma announced any South African
fatalities.
Initial death figures were put at 15; but subsequently started rising with South Africans being the major casual-ties. Lulu Mnguni said forensic tests were still to be con-ducted to verify the identities of the dead.
South Africa has sent a team of 10 disaster management personnel, including doctors, to help in the search.
It is believed that there were 349 South Africans visiting the popular church at the time of the crash. T.B. Joshua
Breaks silence The Nigerian preacher and prophet on Thursday broke his silence over the collapsed building, but denied lack of cooperation and stuck to his theory of possible aerial sabotage.
The popular televangelist also indi-cated that other overseas nationals were involved.
The death toll from the tragedy rose after 10 more bodies were pulled from among the twisted metals and shattered masonry of the building on the sprawl-ing Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) compound.
Joshua had not directly commented on the deaths and had only published Bible quotations on his Facebook site and Twitter account.
But in a statement, he extended his sympathies to victims’ families and described those who died as “martyrs of the Kingdom of God.”
“The pain of one is the pain of all. It is indeed a sad and painful moment for the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones,” he said.
“To all those who lost family mem-bers and loved ones, please accept our
heartfelt commiserations.” Joshua said, “Nigerians, South Africans and citizens of other nations were affected,” but did not specify which countries or say whether they were
among the dead, 131 injured or both. The South African High Commission-er said 17 of his compatriots were unaccounted for and the church had set up a hotline in Johannesburg for concerned relatives.
“It [the death toll] can’t all be South Africans,” he told AFP. “There were also Nigerians who were working. Two chil-dren were pulled alive from the col-lapsed building but both their mother and father were among the missing,” he added.
“They were under the rubble togeth-er with their father. Their father kept them talking to each other,” he said.
T.B. Joshua inspires an almost fanatical devotion from his thousands of fol-lowers around the world, who are drawn to his services by claims of miracle-working and prophecies. But rescue workers have complained of a lack of cooperation from Joshua and the church authorities, which included preventing the emergency services from accessing the site until Sunday.
Joshua rejected the lack of cooperation claims as “inaccurate”. “Contrary to this, we want to categorically state that the church has provided assistance when and where
required and continues to do so: good Christians are good citizens,” he said.
Engineers have suggested that the addition of extra floors on top of the existing building for foreign followers of the church overloaded the structure, causing the fatal collapse.
Source:Vanguardngr
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