At least seven people were injured when a one-storey warehouse collapsed in the Kasuwan Gwari area of Minna, Niger State, Saturday evening.
The incident took place as a trailer was off-loading soft drinks into the building.
Eyewitnesses stated that the warehouse, owned by a trader who supplies bulk soft drinks to supermarkets in Minna, gave way during the loading process.
The structure had been receiving assorted drinks from over 23 traders since Friday morning before it collapsed.
Sources revealed that the injured individuals, who were workers engaged in offloading the drinks, were evacuated and are currently receiving treatment at a government hospital in Minna.
Although some sources claimed that three people had died, government officials confirmed that all seven evacuated individuals were alive.
One Mohammed, an electronic technician present at the scene, corroborated the account of seven people being evacuated.
Architect Bako Mohammed, the general manager of the Niger State Urban Development Board, stated that “It is a case of an illegal conversion of a structure to a warehouse. You can see what is happening now. Our machines are coming, and we are pulling the entire structure down.”
Hussaini Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), confirmed the evacuation of seven injured individuals and stated that no deaths had been confirmed at press time.
He added that the true casualty figure would be determined once the debris was fully cleared by the urban development board.
