Pathologist claims five victims of Ikoyi collapsed building unidentified

The Acting Lagos State Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Sokunle Soyemi, said on Thursday five victims of the collapsed 21-storey building in the Ikoyi area of the state are yet to be identified.

Soyemi, a medical pathologist, stated this in his testimony at the Lagos Coroner’s Court, Ikeja.

At least 46 persons were confirmed dead when the high-rise building collapsed along Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, on November 1 last year.

The pathologist said 50 victims – 47 male and three female – were taken to hospital, adding that 45 had so far been identified and their ages range from 18 to 56-years.

He said autopsies on the bodies commenced on November 4, 2021, and lasted 13 days.

Soyemi said: “So far we have identified 45 bodies out of 50. The autopsies revealed that 40 deceased had multiple injuries as cause of death.

“Six had injuries to the head alone and died. One had a bilateral fracture of the femur.

READ ASLO: Ikoyi collapsed building death toll rises to 45

“The bodies were put in 53 body bags because an additional three body bags contained body parts of the deceased victims.

“After about a month, we started receiving results from the laboratory. As we were receiving the results we were also releasing the bodies to families and up till now, we are still releasing bodies.

“At present, of the 45 identified bodies, 42 had been released to family members while the remaining three have not been collected by family members.

“When there was a call for family members to come and donate samples, some people who were not related to the deceased came forward and the samples could not match.

“We had to call again for new samples from family members and these came in about two weeks ago.”

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