By Maduka Nweke, [email protected]
Stakeholders have chided the Federal Government for its poor supervision in the circumstances leading to the collapse of a building in Gwarimpa District in Abuja.
The stakeholders who are of the view that government agencies are fond of giving blanket checks on those handling projects in the country.
One of the stakeholders who spoke to Daily Sun, Mr. Adoke Abdulahi, Managing Partner of Abdul-Kadir Property, said most often, the government will wave certain conditions for certain people, creating bottlenecs for supervisors.
According to him, “How can one feel too much to be supervised? Most of the problems of building collapse in Nigeria have government officials as accomplices.
Some people who are supposed to follow due process are not checkmated because they have someone influential in government who can cut the process short.”
Another private developer in Lagos Mr. Anthony Achizue, noted that unless stringent standards and security are enforced, the issue of building collapse in the country will be part of our life.
He said that two days after a collapse of a building, life continues withthe government not doing anything about it.
“If I have my way, there should be consistent training and retraining of artisans to educate them on the dangers of building collapse and why every builder should adhere to rules guiding construction in the country.
Although building collapse cannot be fully eradicated because even in the developed world, buildings collapse, but what I am saying is that it could be seriously minimized.”
Recently, the coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Umar Shuaibu, disclosed to that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammad Bello, ordered the arrest of Federal Housing Authority officials in connection with building collapse in Gwarimpa District in Abuja.
He directed security agencies to also arrest the developer of the collapsed two-storey building in Abuja and the engineer supervising the development, for manslaughter.
Shuaibu disclosed that the uncompleted building that collapsed trapped 24 persons, with three confirmed dead, while 21 persons have been rescued.