The building playing host to Salvation Ministries, Okpanam, Asaba, Delta State, has collapsed.
Daily Report Nigeria gathered that the building caved in during an evening service on Tuesday, January 11, 2022.
The incident occured while the church was having it’s first service in the renovated structure.
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An unspecified number of worshippers were earlier trapped in the rubble but were all rescued, while three members were left in critical condition.
All injured members were rushed to the Asaba Specialist Hospital, for treatment.
Sources say the original design of the structure was tempered with as reconstruction was still ongoing.
The structure was originally designed as a plaza before the church bought it for about N300 million, as it underwent reconstruction.
Secretary to the Delta State Government, Chief Patrick Ukah and the Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr Ononye Mordi led a team of Red Cross officers, and fire fighters during a rescue mission following the collapse.
No deaths recorded – Ukah
While a minimum of 10 persons were earlier reported dead, the Secretary to the State Government, Patrick Ukah told newsmen that no casualties were recorded in the incident.
According to Ukah, many members suffered injuries with three of them in critical condition but nobody died from the collapsed structure.
He said: “To God be the glory, we arrived here on time, you can see that the various agencies are here, the Commissioner of Police is here, and the ministry of works was able to move in with payloader and tractor.
“So far, we don’t have any casualty but we have a lot of injured people and can tell you that 18 of them were taken to Asha hospital and the doctors there were very helpful, and about three of them are very critical.
“What we are trying to do is a mop-up, we are still at the scene. We want to make sure that nothing is left there, if not we are getting to the end of it.”
Attempt to get comments from the Delta State Police Command proved abortive as the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Bright Edafe did not take his calls nor respond to text messages.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian actor, Majid Michel has revealed his phobia for going to church.
The popular movie maker said he never enjoyed going to church because he dreaded waking in the mornings.
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