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Okey Sampson, Umuahia
A building engineer, Chief Madu Ike has faulted the Aba South LGA Town
Planners and other relevant government agencies for the collapsed
three storeys building in Aba, Abia State.
Ike, who visited the scene of the incident, said if town planners in
the city were alive to their responsibilities, the construction of the
building which he described as a death trap and a disaster awaiting to
happen, would not have been allowed to get to the stage it were before
collapsing.
He stressed that it was crystal clear that the building was
structurally faulty and certainly set to cause havoc which the town
planners couldn’t have feigned ignorance of.
“Any day I passed here, I weep for what we’re doing to ourselves. It’s
unfortunate that the small rain of yesterday (Tuesday) proved that
this disaster is even worst than I thought.
“How can one use substandard materials and expect a miracle? Someone
ought to be supervising the job from government’s angle, but what do
you see, shoddy oversight riddled with corruption led to the loss of
these lives that could have been avoided”, he lamented.
He regretted that building collapse has become a yearly occurrence in
Aba, adding that there was no year the city does not witness one to
three-building collapse.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of Abia South Town Planning
Authority, Mr Ahuruonye Okezie has disclosed that the developer of the
collapsed building was not given a go-ahead to construct the house.
Available report has it that Okezie said the last communication his
office had with the owner of the property was on May 20, when he was
asked to scale down the building, adding that since then, he never
submitted any withdrawing until yesterday morning.
“You do not build when you have not received approval. The law said
the field should not be cleared until approval is given”, Okezie was
quoted as saying.
The building was said to have collapsed at about 5.15am, but nine
hours after the incident occurred, no rescue team from any Abia
government agency was at the scene, however, members of the Nigerian
Red Cross Society (NRCS) who arrived at about 8:00am could do little
or nothing as there was no excavator to clear the rubbles.
