By Yolamchi Ukaga, Aba
About five persons were feared crushed to death when a three-storey building under construction collapsed in Aba, commercial hub of Abia State.
According to a witness, one of the five persons inside the structure at the time of the incident was killed while fate of the four others who were trapped in the rubbles were yet to be determined as at press time.
The building, which is located at No 85 Azikiwe road, in Aba South Local Government Area of the State collapsed at about 5:15am on Wednesday, September 16 following a heavy downpour.
Uche Kalu, the only survivor, stated that five other young persons were still trapped in the rubbles.
The remains of one of the yet to be identified victims, who tried to escape before getting trapped at the edge of the building, was seen hanging with stretched out legs, as the rubbles divided the victim into two from the head.
It was also gathered from Kalu, that the collapsed building, which has been under construction for about a year now, serves as shelter for some homeless youths. He however, told our reporter that he and some of the other victims were taking refuge in the building when the incident occurred.
Kalu, who said he is a bricklayer, explained that he was discussing a contract with one of the trapped victims, when the building collapsed and buried him under the rubbles.
Kalu, who had head injuries, was later rushed to a nearby hospital, by sympathizers for treatment. This is as no rescue team from Abia State government was sighted at the scene, 10 hours after the incident occurred.
However, members of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), who arrived the scene at about 8:00am moved into the building, but came out helpless, as there was no excavator to help clear the rubbles.
Mr. Wisdom Okoro, member, Practice Committee, representing Abia State at the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, observed that the collapsed building had no builder attached to it. He observed further that, lives of citizens would be saved and costs of buildings reduced, if government insists on having professional builders supervise buildings under construction.
He called on Abia State Government to discontinue the construction of the building and set up a panel to investigate its construction, to forestall future occurrences.
Mr. Leonard Eze, a building engineer and resident, who visited the scene, described the building, as a death trap and a disaster waiting to happen. He faulted the Aba South Local Government Area (LGA) Town Planning Authority and other relevant government agencies, for allowing the continuation of the building, which he observed was structurally faulty.
“Any day I pass here, I weep for what we’re doing to ourselves. It’s unfortunate that the small rain of yesterday proved that this disaster is even worse 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.
“Is there any year we don’t have one to three building collapses in Aba? What has government done about them? People attribute things like his to rituals, but there is nothing like that; as this is a clear engineering error.
“Some building contractors in this Aba will use poor methods/techniques, combined with substandard rods, poorly molded blocks, improper cement grades, disjointed support pillars and when relevant government agencies come calling, they’ll pay them off and they’ll go thinking they can have their cake and still keep it”, he said
Mr. John Ugwoeri, chairman, Nigerian Institute of Builders (NIOB), Abia Chapter said this was the fourth collapsed building in Abia State, this year. He appealed to government to listen to the body and heed their calls to use professional builders to avert further occurrences.
The victim trapped at the site of the incident- Survivors of the 3-storey building collapse