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.