From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
Weeks after a ferocious windstorm pulled down a market in Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, the homestead of Governor Dave Umahi, killing six persons, another tragedy was averted last week in Abakaliki, the capital of the state.
Indeed, residents of Prince Maris Avenue, around Mgbabor Street, in Abakaliki, where a five-storey building under construction collapsed last week, are still praising God because nobody died in the incident.
It was gathered that the building caved in in the evening of Tuesday, June 7, 2022, after a downpour earlier in the day.
Our correspondent, who visited the construction site the following morning, saw another ongoing five-storey building beside the rubble.
It was gathered what saved the situation was that the workers were not on site when the incident occurred.
A resident of the area, who opted not to be named, said the collapsed building belonged to a businessman from Nsukka, Enugu State.
“The owner of the building is a business person from Nsukka, but the engineer handling the project is from the South West.
“It is a twin five-storey building but the one that collapsed was already completed while the second one is at level three.
“We don’t know why the building collapsed but government officials came here yesterday and ordered ‘stop-of-work’ on the site,” he said.
An Ebonyi State University student living in the area, Monday Casmir, told Daily Sun that the incident caused great fear and panic within the vicinity.
“When the building fell down, it was like a blast. People started running helter-skelter. For some minutes, we could not fathom what actually happened, until the dust settled. We thank God that no life was lost,” he said.
It was learnt that the site, located opposite Prince Maris Hostel, behind the Presco Campus of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, was not approved by the relevant authorities.
Confirming the incident, spokesman of the Ebonyi State Police Command, Chris Anyanwu, said their men who visited the scene reported that no life was lost.
Anyanwu said: “Officers from the command have visited the scene with some government officials. And from the report available as at today, no casualty was recorded.
“We cannot ascertain the cause of the collapse. Government and other relevant bodies have already commenced investigation to ascertain the cause of the incident.”
But the Ebonyi State Ministry of Capital City Development disclosed that the collapsed building was not approved for construction in the first place.
Permanent secretary in the ministry, Enyinnaya Eko-Egwu, told our correspondent that the contractor handling the project submitted the drawings of the building and other accompanying documents and was not seen again since then.
He stated that the ministry was thinking that the contractor would come back for continuation of discussion on the project, without knowing that he had started construction.
Another senior government official confided in Daily Sun that there was flagrant compromise on the side of the development control department. He wondered how a building could get to the fifth floor within Abakaliki capital city without the prying eyes of the ubiquitous task force seeing it.
Our source said: “The building was never approved in the first place; the contractor only submitted the papers and the drawing of the project and left.
“He didn’t even pay the relevant fees nor secure the approval of the ministry before embarking on the project.
“If he had come back as we expected, we would have studied the project and the area to see if it could be approved or reduced to at least three storeys. I am surprised that our task force team did not get them till this point. My findings show that they were working on the site on weekends, which made the ministry unable to catch them.”
The source added that he visited the site with a team from the state’s chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) and members of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
“We visited the site with a team from NSE and COREN. They have taken samples and begun their investigations. They are the ones that will determine whether it was caused by the use of fake materials, structural defects or soil incompatibility,” he said.
Asked for the identify of the owner of the building, the senior government official said: “I don’t know the owner of the building but I was told that the owner is a lady from Enugu State. But by the time we conclude investigation all the details will come out.”
Meanwhile, COREN’s Ebonyi State technical committee on engineering regulation monitoring, after inspecting the site, sealed the premises.
Chairman of COREN in the state, Enyinnaya Eni, regretted that the collapsed building has tainted the quality standard of infrastructure set by Gov. Umahi in the state.
Eni equally lamented the loss incurred by the owner due to lack of due diligence on the part of the engineers that handled the project.
He stated that the materials used in the construction of the building would be subjected to tests by the engineering regulation monitoring team to ascertain the cause of collapse.
“I want to use this opportunity to advise those who intend to embark on building construction of any kind to ensure they secure the services of reputable professionals to avoid this kind of calamity,” he said.