Abuja building colapse as six escape death
A four-story building in highbrow Gwarinpa area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the wee hours of Monday collapsed and trapped about eight in the rubble.Six of them were later rescued by aid workers while the search for two others was ongoing at the time of filing this report.
There was, however, no death recorded in the incident.
An official of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) who craved anonymity told the news men that “This building collapsed because building codes are not implemented in Abuja. Clearly, the use of substandard material is responsible for today’s collapse and that is because engineers cut corners by colluding with government officials”.
He also raised the alarm that apart from the one that has just come down, more buildings in the area are likely to collapse soon because of the weak structures holding them due to substandard materials used in their construction.
Some of such buildings are already being inhabited by tenants who are living in these death traps unknowingly.
The building, located at Plot 444, Citec Villa area in Gwarinpa, Abuja came down around 1:00am. Some respondents told the new men that the building was an office building under construction which was already partly being inhabited by workers.
The ownership of the building was not certain at press time; some said the building was owned by a former governor of Osun State, while others said it is owned by the Nigerian Navy.
Personnel of the National Emergency Management Agency and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were said to have reported promptly to the scene, but that before their rescue experts would arrive, volunteers were already on ground.
The volunteers, mostly Igbo youths who run businesses around the area joined in the rescue of the affected persons and the six rescued persons were said to be rushed to a hospital and that no case was critical.
The Spokesperson of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Yushau Shuaib, confirmed the incident. He said in a statement that locals around the site of the incident helped in rescuing three people who were trapped in the rubble.
Mr Shuaib also confirmed that the injured victims had been taken to hospital.