Nigerian church collapse kills 'at least 160' worshippers during bishop ordination

Updated

Metal girders and the roof of a crowded church have collapsed onto worshippers in southern Nigeria, killing at least 160 people with the toll likely to rise, a hospital director says. Key points: Mortuaries overflowing after church collapses

Hospital director says 160 dead, expects toll to rise

Crane being used to lift debris

Building collapses are common in Nigeria

Mortuaries in the city of Uyo are overflowing from Saturday's tragedy, said medical director Etete Peters of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. The Reigners Bible Church International was still under construction and workers had been rushing to finish it in time for Saturday's ceremony to ordain founder Akan Weeks as a bishop, congregants said. Hundreds had been inside the Reigners Bible Church International in the city of Uyo on Saturday for the consecration of founder Akan Weeks as its bishop when the metal girders fell and the corrugated iron roof caved in. He had parked his car outside the complex to make a phone call, heard a deafening explosion he thought was a bomb only to see that the church had disappeared, he said

Eyibio and three others managed to drag 10 wounded people from an overflow area for of worshippers just outside the collapsed church but they did not enter the main structure because a construction worker among them warned of the danger of a further collapse. “I’m so traumatized I could not sleep last night for the horrors repeating themselves in my mind.”

Many uncounted victims are in private mortuaries scattered across Uyo, youth leader Edikan Peters said. He said some people are secretly taking the bodies of relatives to their homes because mortuaries are overcrowded and some do not have refrigeration. Journalists at the scene charge that church officials are trying to prevent them from documenting the tragedy, trying to seize cameras and forcing some to leave the area. The governor's spokesman, Ekerete Udoh, said the state government will hold an inquiry to investigate if anyone compromised building standards. Buildings collapse often in Nigeria because of endemic corruption with contractors using sub-standard materials and bribing inspectors to ignore shoddy work or a lack of building permits. In 2014, 116 people died when a multi-story guesthouse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city. Most victims were visiting South African followers of the megachurch's influential founder T. B. Joshua. Two structural engineers, Joshua and church trustees have been accused of criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter after a coroner found the building collapsed from structural failures caused by design and detailing errors.
The death toll from yesterday's church collapse in Uyo, Nigeria, rises to 160 with the death toll expected to rise further.