Survivor of Delta church building collapse recounts disaster

 

Chidinma Ugochukwu, a survivor of the church building in Okpanam, Delta State, which collapsed on Tuesday, has narrated how the incident happened.

MuchTalksBlog recalls that the building housing Salvation Ministry collapsed at about 5:55p.m on Tuesday, trapping unspecified number of worshippers with over 10 deaths recorded.

According to Ugochukwu, who survived the disaster alongside her children, worshippers at the Tuesday’s evening service were about to receive the Holy Communion when the building, which was undergoing reconstruction, suddenly caved in.

She recalled, ‘‘After the preaching by the man of God and it was time for Holy Communion, the man of God, Pastor David, now told us that it was not for everybody but for the people with critical condition, those with sicknesses like diabetes, HIV, cancer.

“We were there listening, then all of a sudden we discovered that there was a great noise not allowing anybody to escape. It was like magic, what we saw was that everybody was just going down.

“I was backing my small baby, the elder one was in the children’s department.

“After the incident, so many people came to rescue us. I was there trying to bring this child out of my back. One man said I should give him the baby, which I did and I started looking for the elder brother and I later saw him alive.

“So many people were affected, we just blessed God. Our bags, phones, even our foot wears went down just like that but we are alive.

“So many people survived it and I thank God for the Government of Delta State because immediately it happened, all of them came, fire service, ambulance, everywhere was filled as they tried to rescue victims.

“They were sending people to Federal Medical Centre; we just thank God.

“I didn’t witness anybody die but I saw one lady lifeless, but can’t confirm if she was really dead because I am not a doctor.”

She said the worshippers were up to 150 in the church when the building collapsed.

The death toll has reportedly risen to four as of the time of filing this report.

The police had earlier on Wednesday morning confirmed that three people had died out of the 18 victims rescued from the debris.