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Magnus Eze, Enugu
There was anxiety in the early hours of yesterday, when a three-storey building collapsed on Monarch Avenue, Independence Layout, Enugu.
However, frayed nerves were calmed as it turned out that the building was still under construction, hence, nobody lived in it. So, there were no casualties reported, according to sources.
It was gathered that the building located behind Catherine Lodge collapsed on Wednesday night.
Some residents of the area attributed the incident to substandard materials and use of quack engineers in the execution of the project.
A resident who claimed to have been aware of the situation told Daily Sun that block work had already been completed on the building, waiting for roofing when the structure suddenly crumbled at about 8:30pm on Wednesday.
They urged the government of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to initiate policies and programmes aimed at avoiding use of substandard building materials in construction of houses, roads and bridges in the state.
While not blaming government for the collapse, they advised people to avoid human induced disasters, adding that it was high time government began demolition of illegal structures especially those on waterways to serve as deterrent to others.
A member of the Prevention, Inspection and Failure Analysis Committee (PIFAC) of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) in Enugu State who promised to confirm from the NSE chairman about the collapse did not get back to our reporter.
However, State branch Chairman of NSE, Festus Ozoemena had recently said that the society would continue to partner the state government to forestall building collapse.
He stated that the society had identified some structures with questionable integrity in Enugu City and communicated them to the relevant government agencies for action.
