Mother, Four Children Die as Family Home Collapses in Kwara
A quiet family home in Ilorin, Kwara State, turned into a scene of death and despair in the early hours of Tuesday, September 1, 2026, when part of a decades-old three-storey building suddenly collapsed, killing a mother and her four children and leaving a grieving family struggling to comprehend the devastating loss.
Global Mirror News gathered that the tragedy occurred at about 5am at No. 41 Popo-Giwa Street, beside Gogoro Mosque, in Ilorin West Local Government Area, shortly after members of the family woke up to prepare for the early morning Muslim prayer.
For Mallam Kudus Olarewaju, the morning began like any other. The first call to prayer had just been made at a nearby mosque, and he was contemplating whether to get up and perform ablution when a terrifying sound shattered the calm.
“Gbaa!”
The loud sound jolted everyone awake.
“I was inside the building. It was early hours of this morning, precisely some minutes after 5am. The first call to prayer had been made by the Ladan,” Olarewaju recalled.
“I was contemplating going to the toilet to perform ablution. Thank God that I had not moved close to the toilet before I heard a loud sound.
“Everybody woke up immediately, but I could not see anything because dust had covered everything, and I did not know what to do because I did not know what had happened,” he said.
It was only after the thick dust began to settle that Olarewaju realised that the boys’ quarters attached to the main building had collapsed.
Eight family members trapped beneath rubble
Global Mirror News gathered that eight members of the family were inside the affected section of the building when it suddenly gave way.
The building, located at No. 41 Popo-Giwa Street beside Gogoro Mosque, had reportedly been the family home for more than 70 years.
For generations, the ageing structure had provided shelter and served as a place where members of the family grew up, raised children and created memories.
But in a matter of seconds, part of the building collapsed, burying family members who had only just woken up for the day.
Among those trapped was Olarewaju’s younger brother, a Staff Sergeant in the Nigerian Army.
“He was also awake and about to perform his ablution too. He was the first person to be rescued alive,” Olarewaju said.
The rescue of his brother offered the family a brief moment of hope, but rescuers still had to battle against time and the heavy rubble to reach the others.
As word of the collapse spread around Popo-Giwa, residents rushed to the scene and joined emergency responders in the desperate search for survivors.
An eyewitness, Abdulganiy Musa, told Journalists that the father of the family was a serving Soldier, while the mother worked as a casual staff member at the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Ilorin.
Musa said rescuers were involved in frantic efforts to evacuate the trapped occupants.
A child identified as Firdaus, the second-to-last born of the family, was among those rescued alive as the search continued.
Emergency responders race against time
The Kwara State Fire Service said it received a distress call at about 5am reporting that a building had collapsed and that people were trapped underneath.
The Agency immediately mobilised personnel to the scene and commenced search-and-rescue operations.
An excavator was later deployed to assist the rescuers in removing the massive debris and gaining access to those still trapped.
Global Mirror News gathered that several emergency and security agencies participated in the operation, including the State Emergency Management Agency, the National Emergency Management Agency, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the police, health officials and the Red Cross.
Six to seven ambulances were also deployed to evacuate victims to hospitals for urgent medical attention, according to the Chairman of Ilorin West Local Government Area, AbdulRahman Babatunde Ladan.
The rescue operation eventually yielded four survivors.
However, four other occupants were recovered from beneath the rubble and initially confirmed dead.
Death toll rises to five
The tragedy became even more painful when the death toll later rose to five after another victim died from injuries sustained in the collapse.
The five victims were identified as a mother and her four children.
Their deaths transformed what should have been an ordinary morning into a day of mourning for the family and the wider community.
Global Mirror News gathered that the victims were subsequently buried according to Islamic rites at the Muslim Cemetery in Oko-Olowo, Ilorin, less than 24 hours after their bodies were recovered.
The father and two surviving children were taken to hospital and remained under medical care.
Olarewaju, devastated by the loss, said the family had lost five members.
“From all indications, from the information I am getting from those in the hospital, we have lost five of them,” he said.
“I have lost my children; I lost their mother and four of them. Only my brother, who is a Staff Sergeant in the Nigerian Army, is alive. I have lost five of them according to the information I got from those in the hospital; others are responding to treatment.”
Fire Service initially confirms four deaths
Olarewaju’s account initially differed from the official casualty figure released while the rescue operation was still ongoing.
The Kwara State Fire Service had confirmed four deaths and four survivors at the scene.
“We have recovered four people dead and rescued four people alive,” the Public Relations Officer of the Kwara State Fire Service, Hassan Adekunle, told Journalists during the operation.
Adekunle explained that the Agency’s immediate priority was to rescue anyone who might still be alive beneath the rubble.
“We immediately mobilised to the scene and commenced rescue operation. This kind of situation is not something the fire service can handle alone,” he said.
He added that officials of the Hospitals Management Board, NSCDC and other emergency agencies joined the rescue operation.
SEMA confirms eight trapped
The Kwara State Emergency Management Agency also confirmed that eight people were trapped in the building, with four rescued alive and four initially confirmed dead.
Its Secretary, Magaji Saadudeen, said the survivors were receiving medical treatment while the bodies recovered from the rubble had been evacuated.
“The rescued persons are receiving treatment presently,” Saadudeen said.
As the rescue operation progressed, authorities also became increasingly concerned about the stability of the remaining section of the building.
Police evacuate occupants from unsafe building
The Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Command, Adekimi Ojo, described the structure as a three-storey building and said the portion that collapsed was the boys’ quarters.
“It was a three-storey building that collapsed. Our findings showed that the boys’ quarters of the building collapsed. Information gathered revealed that eight people were trapped in the building,” he said.
“For now, the situation is under control. We will examine the remaining building and see how people can be secured. But for now, we have evacuated everybody from the main building.”
Following an integrity assessment, the remaining structure was declared unsafe.
The family subsequently agreed to demolish the building, ending concerns about whether the ageing structure could safely remain occupied.
Experts call for audit of old buildings
The tragedy has renewed concerns about the safety of ageing buildings in Kwara State and across Nigeria.
The Chairman of the Kwara State Technical Committee of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, Bashir Lawal, called for a comprehensive audit of old and ageing buildings across the state to prevent a recurrence.
The development also renewed calls for residents to take warning signs such as cracks and structural weaknesses seriously, report them to the relevant authorities and evacuate buildings whenever their safety is in doubt.
Representing Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq at the scene, the state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Lawal Olohungbebe, described the incident as unfortunate and commiserated with the bereaved family.
He said the rescue operation commenced immediately after the collapse and that some victims were successfully rescued.
Olohungbebe also stressed the importance of accessible roads in residential areas, saying the access route to the building helped emergency responders reach the scene quickly.
“One of the things that made it very easy for us to rescue the few people we were able to rescue is the access route,” he said.
He urged residents and developers to comply with building and town-planning regulations, particularly those relating to access roads.
The Commissioner commended the Ministries of Health and Environment, COREN, SEMA, NEMA, the Fire Service, Civil Defence, the Red Cross and other emergency responders for their intervention.
Ladan, who monitored the rescue operation, also commended the emergency agencies and residents for their prompt response.
He urged residents to report structural defects immediately and evacuate buildings whenever they notice signs of a possible collapse.
“Whenever you discover something like this, please escalate it. Get to the point of evacuating yourself and your family members from that building. Life is the priority,” he said.
He also advised prospective developers to use quality construction materials and engage qualified professionals to supervise construction projects.
A home of memories becomes a place of mourning
But beyond the emergency response, official statements and casualty figures lies the heartbreaking story of a family whose lives changed forever in a matter of seconds.
For Olarewaju, the collapse was not simply the destruction of an old building.
It was the sudden loss of his children, their mother and other members of his family. It was the destruction of a home that had sheltered generations and carried decades of family memories.
“The building is gone,” he lamented.
For more than 70 years, the structure had stood as part of the family’s history. Generations had lived there, grown up there and shared countless memories under its roof.
But on September 1, 2026, that roof became a grave for five members of the family.
The building may soon be demolished, but the pain left behind will not disappear with the rubble.
For the survivors, particularly the father and the two children still receiving treatment, the most difficult chapter may now be beginning, learning to live with the empty spaces left behind by a mother and four children who went to sleep expecting to wake up to another ordinary day.
