The collapsed building of Reigners Bible Church International on Saturday, December 10, in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state is one collapse too many in Nigeria. In September 2014, 115 people including 84 South Africans were killed in Lagos in the collapse of a church belonging to the famous televangelist TB Joshua.

The Uyo church building collapsed during a special bishopric enthronement service for the founder of Reigners’ Bible Church, Apostle Akan Weeks, killing many worshippers and leaving several others injured. The service was attended by the Akwa Ibom state governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, his deputy, Mr Moses Ekpo, and many other state officials.

The Nigerian Methodists Chaplaincy, UK are indeed very shocked and distressed at the sheer numbers of likely casualties which will easily increase going by the fact that medical facilities in Nigeria is nothing to write home about, especially in Uyo where many will be left with life threatening injuries. We hereby solicit for prayers, international aids and medical support especially for people with serious injuries and families of those who lost their family member in the tragic incident.

We also call on the Akwa Ibom state government to constitute a panel of enquiry to ascertain the immediate and remote factors leading to the collapse of the church building with a view to forestall the re-occurrence of such tragic incident.