Encomium
President Jonathan, who visited the scene to condole with the church and victims of the tragedy, described the incident as “very sad story and very sad incident”, even as he expressed his condolences to the church members, the head of the church, Prophet T. B. Joshua and those who lost their loved ones in the incident.
He particularly condoled with the South African people and their President, Jacob Zuma, whom he said he had already spoken with.
Most of the victims were reportedly of South African origin.
According to the President, “Today when I arrived Lagos, my first port of call was where a five-storey building collapsed and 80 people confirmed dead, about 131 people were injured.
“It is a very sad story, very sad incident to us and the international community because most of the people that died in that building collapse were not Nigerians. In fact, majority of them are South Africans,” Dr. Jonathan said adding: “I spoke to the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma to first express our own sentiments and condolences to the President and people of that country”.
The building, which served as guest house for visitors to the church, a mecca of sorts to people seeking spiritual solutions to their problems, collapsed at about 12.45 pm on Friday, September 12, 2014.
Prophet T B Joshua blamed the tragic incident on a strange aircraft, which was captured on CCTV hovering very close to the building at least thrice before its collapse
After five days of intensive rescue operation, 86 lives were lost while 131 were rescued in the Friday, September 12, 2014 mayhem that hit the prophet T, B Joshua led Synagogue. We reliably gathered that the rescue operation came to a close on Wednesday, September 17, 2014, at exactly 4pm.
