Speculation over cause of Ikoyi building collapse as death toll rises to six, four rescued

With four persons rescued and six confirmed dead as of Tuesday morning, speculation continues to trail the events leading up to the collapse of a high-rise building, identified as 360 Degrees Towers on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi in Lagos State, around 2 pm on Monday.

Though the cause of the collapse remains unknown, a letter widely shared on social media raised questions over the structural soundness of the 21-storey building. It indicated that the project’s structural engineer withdrew its services as construction was ongoing.

In the document dated 20th February, 2020, the Managing Director, Prowess Engineering Limited, Muritala Olawale, told Mr Femi Osibona of Fourscore Heights Limited to notify the relevant government authorities of its exit.

The letter titled “RE: PROPOSED GERRARD TERRACES FOR FOURSCORE LIMITED” reads, “This letter is to formally notify you of the withdrawal of our structural consultancy service from the above named project. We arrived at this decision due to the fact that we no longer share same vision with you as our client in terms of how the project is being executed.

“We can guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings and also works done up to the fourth floor of the third building supervised by us provided specifications have been met in terms of the required concrete strength. This we do not have control over as we do not have the concrete cube test results for each stage of the building till date. Also, kindly note that we are not taking responsibilities for any other construction errors that may have occurred over time on the project.

“Furthermore, we request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project.

“We regret this decision and the lost opportunity to do business together. We look forward to future cooperation in other projects.”