At least nine killed in Lagos building collapse, dozens rescued

Nine people died and 27 others were rescued alive after a multi-storey building collapsed in Alakija, Satellite Town, near the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, turning a dense commercial-residential strip into an overnight search scene. The victims included a young child, and the building was occupied by residents and office workers when it gave way.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency led the response with the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, the Lagos State Building Control Agency, police, the Command and Control Centre and the Neighbourhood Safety Corps. Heavy equipment was brought in to clear the debris and reach people trapped beneath it, and rescue teams continued through the night before operations ended on Friday.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration had previously identified the structure as structurally distressed and told occupants to vacate. During a site inspection on June 27, Gbenga Omotoso, the commissioner for information and strategy, said the warning had been ignored and that “livelihoods were unfortunately prioritised over lives.” He said the tragedy should not have happened.

The state government will demolish every other building already marked as unsafe around the collapse site. It also said the owners of the collapsed building, along with anyone else found culpable, would be prosecuted under state law. Omotoso said the government would also prosecute anyone who violated building regulations or frustrated enforcement efforts, and warned that construction under high-tension power lines was dangerous and unacceptable.

The collapse landed less than 24 hours after another five-storey building failed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. A December 2025 analysis recorded 658 building collapses over 50 years, with 1,621 deaths, and said Lagos alone accounted for 363 of those cases. That same analysis counted 206 collapses nationwide from November 2021 through December 2025, including 64 in Lagos.