By Praise Necherem
A middle-aged woman yesterday escaped being crushed under a 2-storey building undergoing construction which collapsed from an adjoining compound next to hers in Uruagu Nnewi, Anambra State.
Orient Daily gathered that substantial part of the building said to be subject of legal dispute reportedly crumbled when residents were preparing to set out for the day’s businesses.
Husband to the victim, Clement Ojukwu, said the collapsed structure destroyed a wing of his house, causing extensive damages to three of his big generating sets.
He added that about three motorcycles, two gas cookers with oven, kitchen unit, deep freezers, refrigerators assorted choice China plates and others were also affected.
He said, “I left home at about 07.15am, but about 40 minutes later I got an urgent call from one of my neighbors to rush back home immediately.
“He said the new multi-storey building beside my house under construction had collapsed. He said no one knows whether my wife who was cooking in the family kitchen when I left was trapped under the debris.
“I pleaded with him to mobilize people to assist in searching and ascertaining that my wife was safe, before I rushed back.”
Ojukwu said he was filled with joy when the wife called him few minutes later informing him of how she narrowly escaped death as the building under construction in the next compound collapsed.
“Sadly, the owner of the building is a brother and friend. I had in the progress of the construction called and intimated him that it was not only close to my house but that it was dangerously transversing into my compound/building.
“His response was that his father told him that one talks about boundary on the ground, not up or in the air. So as he continued with the project, finished the first decking, and started the second, I was forced to go to court to stop him, ” he added.
Efforts to speak with the owner of the facility were unsuccessful as he was said to be at large.
“No one has seen him since the unfortunate incident occurred earlier in the morning,” a resident of the area who preferred anonymity said.