By: PATRICK TITUS, Uyo.
Score of worshipers have been killed while several others injured when a Church building collapsed weekend in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
Governor Udom Gabriel Emmanuel who was a special guest at the Bishopric Ordination ceremony held at the Reigners Bible Church along Uyo Village Road, were among several injured during the tragedy which occurred in the morning.
The founder of the Church, Pastor Akan Weeks, who was to be installed as a Bishop, also escaped death by whiskers along with other senior Christian Clergies.
Besides, his Chief Press Secretary to the Governor (CPS), Ekerete Udoh and several members of the Protocol team and Journalists of the Government House Press Corps were among those critically injured during the incident.
The Governor, it was gathered was quickly rushed to at the Government House Clinic for medical attention, while the Chief Press Secretary was also rushed to the Ibom
Specialist Hospital.
At the Life Care Hospital by Nwanniba Road, three
persons were confirmed dead on arrival, while several others were being attended to at the emergency unit of the hospital.
“We have critical situation in our hands right now, our facilities here have been over stretched because of the influx of unexpected number of patients arising from the building collapse of the Reigners Bible Church, and
because of that so far, we have lost three persons in this hospital”, a senior nurse told journalists on ground of anonymity.
It was also gathered that some worshipers critically
wounded during the incident also gave up the ghost at the Anua, Uyo General Hospital, where they were rushed for medical emergencies.
A Journalist, Mr. Chris Ikpoto, of the Akwa Ibom
Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC), who arrived the scene earlier, confirmed seeing no fewer than 20 corpses being pulled out and taken to a nearby hospital morgue. Also, a senior medical official said the figure could be above 50 by the time the collapsed iron roof that fell on top of several persons has been lifted by the Julius Berger Cranes
assisted by other medical emergency officials, who were still battling frantically to rescue those trapped under the weight of the building at the time of this report.
Several victims were still trapped under the rubbles of the collapsed structure as strewn vehicles blocked the major road leading to the main entrance to the Church premises.
JuliusBerger cranes and other emergency measures from the State Ministry of Works, Fire service and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) officials had hectic time controlling the surging traffic to the scene, where several
worshipers were still trapped under the rubbles.
The Commissioner for Works, Akparawa Ephraim Inyang-eyen, defied the light rain to control the traffic and directed the Julius Berger crane into the Church compound to rescue those trapped under the weight of the iron
roofing. An engineer, who spoke to our Correspondent, blamed the incident on what he described as “poor attention paid to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before erecting such massive structure on swampy environment that is heavily prone to erosion”.
“You don’t site such heavy structure on such weak and erosion-prone environment”, the Engineer, who craved anonymity explained.
The incident, according to Paul Effiong, a member of the Church, happened at about11:00 am, soon after the introduction of the Governor and his entourage.
“Immediately after the introduction of the Governor and his team, the next session was to be the offering time when a sudden noise announced the caving-in of the building resulting in a stampede”.
The Governor escaped because the elevated section of the Church where the dignitaries sat, was not seriously affected by the incident”, he explained.
