Tordue Salem, Umoru Henry and Bukola Ojeme
31 July 2008
THE House of Representatives, yesterday, summoned the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, over Monday's collapsed building in Abuja, with the minister himself constituting a committee to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incident.
The Federal Government, last night, ordered the arrest of the contractor.
One survivor and five corpses have been retrieved from the debris by rescue workers.
The survivor, Mr. Salisu Naibi, was rescued Tuesday evening together with the body of a woman said to be a food vendor trapped with her two children in the building, while the other corpses were removed early yesterday.
Rep. Abdul Ningi (PDP Ningi-Bauchi State) raised a matter of urgent public importance yesterday and pleaded with the House to mandate its Committee on Housing and Habitat to conduct an investigation into the reasons behind the collapse of that building.
Ningi insisted that the matter should not be left to die since it involved lives.
Former House Committee Chairman on FCT, Rep. Philip Aduda (PDP Bwari/FCT), told the House that "the building was supposed to House 100 shops, but today we are talking about 100 lives being trapped in its rubbles."
He advised the House to "look at ways to bring to an end to the continuous collapse of buildings in the country."
Chairman, House Committee on Housing and Habitat, Rep. Shehu Garba Matazu (PDP Katsina), who was also at the scene earlier with the Speaker, said "enough cement was not used on the building" and charged that "anybody who goes contrary to the National Building Code should be given stiff penalties, because many people contravene the National Building Code intentionally."
Abuja Branch Secretary of the Red Cross Society, Mr. Nwaubani, told Vanguard that "the level of emergency in the country is poor. We do not have equipment on ground. If not for the construction companies (Dantata & Sawoe and Costain) that came to assist, I wonder what would have happened.
"Berger joined us this morning (7:15 a.m). The body recovered this morning was still fresh, that shows that if the emergency situation was better, he would have survived," he said.
The House Committee on Habitat may also summon the boss of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on the tragedy.
FCT Minister suspends two officers
On his part, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Dr. Aliyu Modibbo, constituted a high powered committee to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the collapsed.
The Minister who directed the FCT Police Commissioner, John Haruna, to handle the criminal aspect of the incident for immediate prosecution of the developer, also ordered the immediate suspension of the following officers of Development Control Department: Assistant Director (Building Permit), Mrs. Amina Egella and the District Officer (Utako), Mr. Umoru Halilu.
The Minister's Senior Special Assistant (Communications), Diran Onifade, said as part of moves to ensure an unbiased investigation, Modibbo has ordered the immediate suspension of the following officers of Development Control Department: Assistant Director (Building Permit), Mrs. Amina Egella and the District Officer (Utako) Mr. Umoru Halilu.
He said: "The FCT Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, regrets the loss of lives and injuries sustained in the unfortunate incident. He, therefore, commiserates with their respective families.
"Preliminary investigations so far show that the building, belonging to Exposee Nigeria Limited was being constructed on two plots 230 and 1161, POW Mafemi Crescent Utako. The Company Directors are Jimmy Davies of plot 1154, Sirass Crescent, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II Abuja; and Casafina Trading Company.
"Plot 230 was originally allocated to Exposee under the Accelerated Development programme of the FCTA on the 5th of December 2005.
"Exposee got building approval only in respect of Plot 230. However, the company went ahead to extend the building to adjoining Plot 1161, which is for residential purposes, in violation of the terms of the approval. Stop work notice was immediately issued when it was found that the two plots were merged.
Series of notices were then issued to the developer as follows:-13th August, 2007- Stop Work Notice; 20th September, 2007- Quit Notice; 4th December, 2007- Demolition Notice.
"However, the company, in defiance of the several notices to stop work, continued building until the unfortunate collapse of the structure," he said.
Building not insured - Commissioner for Insurance
The Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission of Nigeria (NAICOM), Mr. Fola Daniels, on a visit to the scene said the tragedy would have been averted if the building was insured.
Daniels while lamenting the frequent cases of collapsed building in the country said insurance cover would ensure that the right engineer is engaged and that the proper materials used for the construction of the project.
He said: "Section 64 of the Insurance Act, 2003 makes it mandatory for any person constructing any building of more than two floors to be insured with a registered insurer. Section 65 also makes it mandatory for every public building to be insured with a registered insurer against the hazard of collapse, fire, earthquake, storm and flood."
Mr. Michael Attahiru who is the Abuja chapter president of Builders Association of Nigeria (BAN) said: "You can see the quality of the materials that are on site. If you carry it and feel it in your hands, you will notice that its sand and no cement. One major causes here apart from the structural design is that the work was not handled by a qualified builder. If he is a registered builder, this kind of thing cannot happen.
"This building is not constructed by anybody who is in the construction job. He is not a builder, he is not an engineer. He is a quack. That is why he will use 12mm rod instead of 26mm for pillars in a four-story building. Look at this house, there is no expansion joint. Look at the conditions of the concrete, this is not concrete. Even if he is a make-shift engineer working on site, he will not cast this kind of concrete," he said.
SON picks samples for testing
The Director-General of the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr John Akanya, led officials of the agency to the site of the collapsed building to pick samples of materials from the rubbles for testing while officials of the Development Control Department of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) were also on hand to collect samples from the site for testing at the Julius Berger Laboratory.
Reps to summon FCT, Housing Ministers
Members of the House Committee on Housing and Habitat, who also went to inspect the crash site, said the House of Representatives would invite the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr Umar Modibbo, and Minister for Housing, Environment and Urban Development, Mrs Halima Tayo-Alao, to shed light on the disaster that has so far taken five lives.
Speaking to journalists at the site, Akanya regretted the non-implementation of the Building Code, which if in operation would address the use of poor and substandard building materials.
"We have already taken materials, we will be testing for the quality, whether it is part of what led to the failure of the building. Even if you have quality material and it is not put together in a proper way, it will collapse," he said.
The SON D-G also called for thorough investigation into the professional competence of those who supervised the building, saying such investigation would help the authorities to determine whether the building was supervised by a "team of butchers, is it just plumbers?"
Also speaking with journalists at the crash site shortly after taking samples of the building materials, an official of the Development Control Department of FCDA, Engineer Ikechukwu Kalu, said: "What we are taking the samples for is to establish the content of cement per weight, per volume and then, that will give an understanding of the kind of mix that was used here."
According to him, the samples would be taken to the building material laboratory of Julius Berger for testing.
Speaking earlier, a visibly angry Chairman of the House Committee on Housing, Dr. Garba Mattazu, who led members of the Committee to the scene of the collapsed building, vowed that it would initiate a public hearing on the National Building Code, preparatory to the enactment of a law to punish breaches of the code.
He said: "We are going to conduct a nation-wide public hearing so that we can get views from Nigerians, not only from professionals in the building sector but we are going to get input from many Nigerians so that at the end of it all, we would come with a law that will make provisions for very serious penalties.
"Immediately we leave here, we are going to summon the FCT Minister and the Minister of Housing, Environment and Urban Development sit down with them, we must tell them the truth and we must direct them, whoever own this structure, no matter his position in this country must be prosecuted," he said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
