Over seven persons have been rescued from a collapsed 3-storey building under construction at Aboga along the Igwuruta-Etche road in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
It is the 4th building collapse in the State within three months.
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 1:30 pm on Saturday while construction work was going on.
They said that no life was lost but seven out of nine workers who were working in the building were rescued with various degrees of injuries.
According to one of the eyewitnesses “Getting here, I saw the building collapsing, while some of the workers were able to jump out others could not as the building collapsed on them”.
“Everybody was rescued alive with injuries, the last person was rescued towards the night with serious injuries, he was rushed to the Hospital in an Ambulance”.
Another eyewitness said, “I heard a loud sound while I was in the house when I rushed out I saw the building collapsing, some persons from this area and passersby started using an axe to break through the debris to rescue the victims before the Government and Police came to join the rescue effort”.
The rescue was made possible by the joint effort of people from the neighbourhood, the authority of Ikwerre Local Government Area and officials of the Rivers State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development as well as the Ministry of Special Duties who deployed Excavators, Fire Truck and Ambulance to ensure timely rescue of the victims some of whom were trapped under the rubble.
The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development Rt. Hon. Evans Bipi who spoke to newsmen at the scene of the incident said it is unfortunate beginning the year with incident of building collapse.
He attributed the incident to the developer’s use of substandard materials.
“It is unfortunate that we are beginning the year with this tragic incident, though no life was lost. This is the 4th building collapse we are witnessing in the State since I assumed office”
“Preliminary investigation at the scene of the incident shows that the building may have collapsed due to the use of substandard materials by the builder”.
“Specifically, the use of 12mm rods for decking a building is a clear violation of construction standards. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, as similar cases of building collapse in the State have been linked to the same cause – the use of inferior materials.”
The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development Rt. Hon. Evans Bipi also accused the developer of building without government-approved building plan.
He said the Ministry has sealed the property pending an investigation into the cause of the building collapse and has asked the property owner to report to the Ministry for investigation.
“As a government, we are not happy with the repeated causes of building collapse in the State that has claimed life, injured several persons, and caused avoidable damages and losses to developers in the State”.
“Let me warn that we will no longer condone a situation where some builders will continue to violate the building code including building without government-approved building plan and compromising safety standards by using substandard materials in a bid to save cost”.
