UYO, Nigeria: At least 100 people were killed by the collapse of a church in southeastern Nigeria, a resident and photojournalist who visited the town morgue said on Sunday, a day after the incident.
“At Uyo teaching hospital where I am now I could see over a hundred corpses, many are heaped on top off each other on the floor,” said photojournalist Ini Samuel. “Eye witnesses also said yesterday corpses were packed in four each bag.”
Gary Ubong, a resident, said the church’s roof had collapsed on worshippers while a pastor was being consecrated as bishop in the presence of government officials.
“I saw more than 100 dead bodies brought out on loaders,” said Ubong, who said he had rushed to the scene after the accident. “I also went to two hospitals and saw heaps of dead bodies difficult to count.”
State police spokeswoman Cordelia Nwawe said 27 had been killed and 30 injured when the Reigners Bible church in Akwa Ibom state capital Uyo collapsed during a service on Saturday. State emergency agency NEMA said in a statement that six people had been killed and 115 injured.
State governor Udom Emmanuel, who escaped unhurt from the church service, ordered the arrest of the building contractor, state news agency NAN said.
The governor’s spokesman, Ekerete Udoh, said the state government will hold an inquiry to investigate if anyone compromised building standards. Buildings collapse regularly in Nigeria because of endemic corruption with contractors using sub-standard materials and bribing inspectors to ignore shoddy work or a lack of building permits.
In 2014, 116 people died when a multi-story guesthouse of the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. Most victims were visiting South African followers of the megachurch’s influential founder T. B. Joshua.
Two structural engineers, Joshua and church trustees have been accused of criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter after a coroner found the building collapsed from structural failures caused by design and detailing errors.
But Lagos state government efforts to bring them to court have been foiled by repeated legal challenges that have delayed a trial.
More than 100 worshipers killed as church collapses in Nigeria
More than 100 worshipers killed as church collapses in Nigeria
UN urges scam center clampdown amid ‘staggering’ abuses
- The new update said satellite imagery and ground reports showed that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations were in the Mekong region and had spread to some Pacific island countries, South Asia, West Africa, and the Americas
GENEVA: The UN has called on governments to clamp down on scam centers, which have mushroomed in Southeast Asia, with hundreds of thousands of people trafficked into forced labor.
The UN human rights office released a report documenting torture, sexual abuse, forced abortions, food deprivation, solitary confinement, and other abuses.
“The litany of abuse is staggering and at the same time heartbreaking,” said UN rights chief Volker Turk, urging governments to act against corruption that is “deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them.”
His office had said in a 2023 report that hundreds of thousands of people were forced to work in the centers, which other investigations have found are responsible for billions of dollars of online fraud.
The new update said satellite imagery and ground reports showed that nearly three-quarters of the scam operations were in the Mekong region and had spread to some Pacific island countries, South Asia, West Africa, and the Americas.
Based on accounts from victims, police, and civil society groups, the report said forced laborers were held in immense compounds resembling self-contained towns, made up of heavily fortified multi-story buildings with barbed wire-topped walls and armed guards.
“The treatment endured by individuals within the context of scam operations is alarming,” the report said.
