From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
One of the survivors of Tuesday evening’s collapse of a church building in Okpanam, Delta State, has narrated how the incident happened.
Mrs Chidinma Ugochukwu and her seven-month old and three-year children survived the accident in what she referred to as magical circumstances.
She told our correspondent at the scene of the disaster on Wednesday that worshippers at Tuesday’s evening service were about to receive the Holy Communion when the building, which was undergoing reconstruction, caved in.
‘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,’ she recalled.
‘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 (FMC); 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,’ the survivor said.
She said worshippers were up to 150 worshippers in the church when the building collapsed.
As of the time of this report, the death toll from the disaster has risen to four.
The police had earlier on Wednesday morning confirmed that three people had died out of the 18 victims rescued from the debris.