THE Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has ordered an investigation to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the collapse of a building in Abuja on Monday, July 3.
According to a statement by the Director of Press Anthony Ogunleye on Tuesday, July 4, FCTA Permanent Secretary Olusade Adesola ordered the investigation during a visit to the site of the collapsed building.
Adesola said a technical committee would be set up, headed by Executive Secretary Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Shehu Ahmad, to determine reasons behind the collapse and establish culpability.
He revealed that the developers had been ordered to stop working on the site, but they ignored the directive.
“The collapse of this building affirms the fact that when you ignore professional advice, it has a repercussion, and this is what is evident. We were just informed that instructions and notices were served to stop work. Even the consultant on site advised that no further work should be done on this site, but it was ignored.
“These are preliminary information being provided to us. Going forward, we have to really go to the root of it to know what happened. Until further investigation is concluded, the site is permanently closed. A caveat will be placed on the plot so that some efforts are not made, either by way of sale or any other transactions,” the Permanent Secretary said.
He added that those found culpable for the collapse of the building would be adequately sanctioned.
The ICIR reported that nine persons were rescued when the building which is still under construction collapsed on Monday, July 3.
With building collapse becoming a recurring incident in the FCT, President of the Nigerian Institute of Building Yohana Izam blamed under-regulation of the sector for the development.
“The absence of baseline regulations such as the National Building Code is indeed a monumental scandal. The world over, the building industry is regulated by a set of consistent minimum standards for the siting, design, construction, and post-construction phases of a building.
“There must always be in existence virile physical planning laws to control development while building regulations, as in the UK or Codes as in the US, deal with key issues of standards,” Izam said.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.