Matilda Omonaiye/
One of Nigeria’s celebrated developers, Mr. Olufemi Adegoke Osibona, has reportedly died in the rubble of a 21-Storey building that collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos today trapping workers on the site.
Osibona, the MD of Fourscore Homes, was the brain behind 360 Degrees Towers – three highrise buildings of 15-Stories often referred to as Luxury in the Sky and the Shalom Apartments in Ikoyi, among other projects in Lagos and the United Kingdom, where he was celebrated as the first African developer to raise a 7-Storey building at 113, Albion Drive, London Fields, E8, 4LZ, in East London. He was reportedly on a visit to the site of another of his big projects when the building collapsed.
NewsmakersNG learned that the collapsed structure on Gerard Road was under construction.
Fifty-year-old Osibona hailed from Ikenne, in Ogun State. He studied Business and Finance at Croydon University in the UK.
The late Osibona, who started his real estate business in London, in 1997, also built the Fourscore Mansions in Waterkloof, Pretoria, South Africa.
He once revealed in an interview that he was selling shoes in London before he ventured into real estate and built over 50 projects in the city.
It is unclear just how many persons are trapped under the rubble, but NewsmakersNG learned that a few construction workers have been rescued and taken to the hospital.
Online videos show young men milling around the site.
So sad.
So sad.
May their souls rest in peace.