The death toll in the five-storey building collapse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Ikotun, Lagos, has risen to 50.

This is just as officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the possibility of recovering more bodies was high.

Also, the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police Force said it would deploy five sniffer dogs to the scene of the incident to help check the rubble for more bodies and locate trapped victims.

South-West spokesperson of NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, in a statement, commended the decision of the Lagos State Police Command, saying that the dogs would assist in the search-and-rescue and in early conclusion of the operations.

He said: “We are deploying Nigeria Police sniffer dogs to assist in locating trapped victims as we are getting close to the area suspected to have more people trapped.

“The Commissioner of Police has ordered the release of five dogs after a collective decision to use dogs by responding agencies and NEMA asked the Police Disaster Management Unit to facilitate the release and management of the dogs.”

Although the death toll has increased from 44, which was the last update given on Sunday, to 50, the number of people rescued remained 130.

The Founder of the church, Pastor Temitope Joshua – better known as TB Joshua – has said that God would get back at those he believed were behind the collapse of the building on Friday.

The cleric insisted that the incident was the handiwork of those bent on destroying his reputation and the church.

Joshua, who has been accused of converting the building from two-storey to five-storey without obtaining government approval, told his congregation on Sunday: “A big head wears the lion’s heart. Don’t quickly forget the incident of Boko Haram here, even though it was televised, they said it was a lie, but they later realised it was true.

“Don’t also forget the Ebola issue here, too; they sent messages to all of you to scare you from coming to this church. Don’t be scared, you are not the target, I am the target. I know my hour has not yet come. I have not finished my job.”

•Adapted from a National Mirror report. Photo shows rescue workers searching for bodies still trapped in the collapsed Synagogue Church building in Lagos.

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