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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The police in Abia have arrested the site engineer overseeing an uncompleted three-storey building which collapsed over the weekend in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, injuring a woman and her two children.
This is is even as a property expert has called for a thorough investigation into the remote causes of the incident.
Disclosing this while briefing journalists in Umuahia, the Commissioner for Information, Okey Kanu said the uncompleted three-storey detached building collapsed around the Low-Cost Housing area of Umuahia.
“The site engineer has been arrested and is currently assisting the police with their investigations,” he confirmed.
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Meanwhile, an Umuahia-based property expert, Goodman Iheikwunacho has urged for thorough investigation to unearth the remote causes of the incident.
He stressed the need for the investigators to go beyond the usual technical issues of structural defects and non-compliance with building regulations, and check for possible sabotage taken into consideration all the circumstances.
“I’m aware that the owner of the collapsed building, Chief Ikechi Emenike is a well known political figure and governorship candidate of APC here in Abia State in 2023. So, you can’t rule out the possibilities that his enemies could be at work.”
Iheikwunacho, who is a property and commercial lawyer, noted that as a top politician, “you never can tell if there are people nursing grievances against him (Emenike), and might resort to doing all sorts of things to damage his name and image”.
He therefore urged the investigators to include looking out for extraneous factors that might have brought down the building, adding that “when an edifice crumbles like a pack of cards, a whole lot of things could have been responsible”, added.
