Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency, speaks on the rubble of a collapsed building belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, Nigeria, on Sept. 17, 2014.SUNDAY ALAMBA/The Associated Press
Church officials prevented rescuers from extricating victims at the site of a six-storey building collapse, leading to a loss of lives, Nigeria's emergency agency said Friday.
Most victims were South African, according to the South African government, which said at least 67 South Africans died and 17 appear to be missing in the rubble of the six-story building that had a shopping mall on the ground floor and guest rooms above.
Ibrahim Farinloye, spokesman for the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency told Associated Press that the building at televangelist T.B. Joshua's Synagogue, Church of All Nations, collapsed at 12:44 p.m. on Friday but rescuers did not get full access until after 5 p.m. on Sunday.
He said rescue workers were on the scene by 1:50 p.m. Friday and that as they were waiting, they were told that at least three people were trapped nearby. The rescuers saved them, Farinloye said. But church officials prevented rescuers from getting further access, he said.
"Some of us were even attacked [by church members]. We wanted to ask the military to deploy to force access for us, but there were many foreigners at the church and we did not want to create an international incident," Farinloye said in a telephone interview.
Church members also were hostile to journalists and smashed at least one television camera.
T.B. Joshua could not immediately be reached for comment. At a televised service on Sunday, he urged his congregants not to be hostile to rescue workers and the media. In a tweet he said "Hard times may test me, they cannot destroy me. To withstand hard times, stand with Christ."
Eighty bodies were recovered and 131 survivors were found by the time the rescue operation ended at 3:35 p.m. Thursday, Farinloye said.
The last survivor was rescued from the debris on Tuesday, and had only a dislocated hand, Farinloye said.
He said rescuers lost the two or three critical hours immediately after a disaster when most lives are saved.
Farinloye said they only were allowed to carry out full rescue operations after Lagos state Governor Babatunde Fashola met Sunday at the disaster site with Joshua, also called "The Prophet." According to a state government statement, Fashola told him: "What you need to understand now is that this place is now an accident scene, and so all your staff must leave this place. We need to take control of this place and let people who are trained to do this job do so."
South Africa flew a team into Lagos to help identify victims and console and help survivors.
South African Foreign Affairs spokesman Clayson Monyela told the AP the process of identifying victims will be lengthy and might involve getting fingerprints and DNA from family members.
"I think there will have to be a further investigation into what happened and how the church responded, but for now our focus is on helping families identify bodies and see that the injured are attended to," Monyela said.