About seven or more persons have been rescued from a collapsed three-storey building under construction at Aboga along the Igwuruta-Etche road in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
It is the fourth building to collapse in the State in the past three months, it was gathered.
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred around 1:30pm on Saturday -yesterday, January 4 – while construction work was going on.
They said though no life was lost, seven out of nine workers who were working on the building were rescued with various degrees of injury.
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.”
“They were able to rescue everybody; but, many were injured. The last person was rescued towards the night with serious injuries, he was rushed to the Hospital in an Ambulance,” he agonized.
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 passers-by started using axes to break through the debris to rescue the victims before the government and Police came to join in 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 in the rubble.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Evans Bipi, who spoke to newsmen at the scene of the incident, said it was unfortunate that the State was beginning the year with the incident of building collapse.
He attributed the incident to the use of substandard materials by the developer.
Bipi said, “It is unfortunate that we are beginning the year with this tragic incident, though no life was lost. This is the fourth 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 collapses in the State have been linked to the same cause – the use of inferior materials.”
Bipi also accused the developer of building without a government-approved building plan, disclosed that the Ministry has sealed the property pending investigation into the cause of the building collapse while the property owner has been directed 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 have 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 plans and compromising safety standards by using substandard materials in a bid to save cost,” the Commissioner said.
