Linking Me With Collapsed Lagos Building Vicious, Wicked– Osinbajo

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday rejected social media reports conferring on him ownership of the 21-storey building that collapsed at Ikoyi,Lagos on Monday.

He denounced the reports as vicious,wicked and heartless.

As the rescue operation at the site entered the fourth day yesterday, the Lagos State government said dead bodies from the rubbles are now ready for identification by the bereaved families.

It put the death toll at 38 while 32 others were registered as missing.

Osinbajo in a statement through his spokesman Laolu Akande, described the building collapse as a horrible tragedy.

He expressed sympathies with the bereaved families and the injured.

He dismissed as obviously sponsored falsehood a social media report that he owned the ill-fated structure.

Akande said:”Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, is saddened by the events that occurred in Lagos on Monday, 1st of November 2021, where a high-rise building under construction on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, collapsed.

“He condoles with the families and relatives of all those who have died, were injured or affected in the collapse. Prof. Osinbajo considers this painful loss of lives a horrible tragedy.

“Also, the attention of the Vice President has been drawn to an obviously sponsored falsehood regarding the recently collapsed building published by Sahara Reporters on November 4th, 2021, to the effect that:

* The VP owns the land upon which the collapsed building in Ikoyi stood.

* That the said land was sold to him by Chief Michael Ade. Ojo, Chairman of Elizade Motors; and

* That the Vice President, at some point, intervened with the regulatory authorities in Lagos State to unseal the said property.

“Let it be made absolutely clear that Prof. Yemi Osinbajo does not own and has never owned the said land.

“He has also never been involved, in any shape or form, in the development of this or any other land since he became Vice President.

“At no time whatsoever did the VP buy this or any other piece of land from Chief Michael Ade. Ojo, or entered into any transaction for the sale of that land or any other piece of land from Chief Ade. Ojo or anyone for that matter.

“All property and assets owned by the Vice President have been publicly declared.

“Also, the Vice President has never spoken to the Governor of Lagos State or any other official of the State Government regarding the unsealing of the said building on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, which subsequently collapsed. He has, indeed, never acted to influence any other regulatory action on the collapsed building, or any other building for that matter, in Lagos State.