Leadership (Abuja)
Golu Timothy
1 August 2008
opinion
It is also called terrorism because it involves the elimination of innocent souls by acts clearly avoidable.It is not the first time it is happening,and yet those who was supposed to halt its continued occurrence are not doing anything about it. How else can one explain the death of about 40 people who were struggling to earn a honest living through an collapsed building.They are workmen who were enegaged in human labour so as to get what they could use to feed their families.Usually the highest among such category of workers gets about N500 per day after a strenuous day's job.
This is not the first time houses have collapsed in the country,as it had, at varius times, happened in Lagos,Port-Harcourt,Abuja and other major cities across the country in the past and the only thing previous governements knew how best to do was to immediately constitute high powered committees to unravel what happened,and as soon as the dust is settled,the whole drama is ended.Most times,the highest the authorities would do would be to source for some meagre relief materials and distribute unevenly and that is the end of the matter.
What happened a few days ago in the capital city, was due to the result of the inefficiency and incompetence of officials of the Federal capital Territory, FCT in charge of development control.They are saddled with the basic responsibility of giving close monitoring to all structural developments in the city. It does not have to be a public building before they supervise it, but as far as it is a human habitation, it behoves on them to do that.
Why can't those in charge of our buildings adhere strictly to building codes or ethics?.
The scene of the disaster,plots 230 and 1161, POW Mafemi Crescent Utako,was a pitiable site to behold.The large and expansive shopping mall-to-be, was in itself a suspet.From afar,a lay man can decipher the structural fraud going on by the contractor and his team players.There is no quality of any sort in the entire building.The walls were even cracked from bottom to top,and yet both the workers and the supervisors were busy laying bricks and putting concrete.They were climbing up and down without any premonition that what they had failed to observe might be injurious to them. The supposedly cement were more sandy block than cement because a mere hand can move them give way. They has no quality to sustain even a flat bungalow, not to talk of a five storey building which the Plaza was meant to be.
On September 11, 2001, an organised international terrorist syndicate attacked the American White House and the Pentagon,(The Defence Ministry) killing many people and destroying the fabrics of many bussinesses.It was a genocide of some sort which shooked the fabrics of the giant nation and set the ball for its later military invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In Abuja, the nation's capital,a similar thing happened on Tuesday when a large building structure under construction,collapse burying about 40 people alive.
The commercial building under construction in Utako District of the Federal Capital City,located directly opposite the Digital Institute,had collapsed Tuesday afternoon burying about 40 people alive.Preliminary investigations so far have shown 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 illegally extend the building to adjoining Plot 1161, which is for residential purposes.
•The Minister of the FCT, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umr, said,on discovering that there is a breach in the way the building was going, his officials immedaitely issued a 'stop work' notice "Series of notices were then issued to the developer as follows:13th August, 2007- Stop Work Notice,20th September, 2007- Quit Notice and 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 yesterday".
He then announced the suspension of two of his directors, namely, Assistant Director, (Building Permit) Mrs. Amina Egella and the District Officer (Utako) Mr. Umoru Halilu, both top officials of the development control department.It is a good sanction by the minister, but it should not stop there.Those in charge of investigation should be able to do a thorough job so as not to leave any stone unturned in trying to establish the level of complicity.They are not sent to investigate whether there was a violation of building codes somewhere,but to ascertain the level of ineptitude.This is because the collapse of the building in itself is a confirmation that there is something wrong somewhere.Somebody must have ommitted or committed something.A house under completion cannot just fall like that.
This has brought to question the competence of some of our Architects and Engineers. The Professionals are always quick to put the blame on the quacks among them, but who among them has taken it upon him or herself to monitor what the quacks are doing?Even if you don't know the quacks,you can see their work going on every where,and yet no professional body has even gone to challenge what they are doing, except when a disaster happens like this.It is a pity.
Meanwhile at the site of the collapsed building, our correspondents observed that the rescue process was too slow,a development that may take a longer time to remove both dead and possibly almost dead bodies who have been under the thick debris.The heavy evacuation equipment, about four in numbers,were only able to cover about 40% of the entire collapsed structure.As at yesterday,order had been restored in the crashed site by security men,especially policemen who have stopped the miscreants and thugs from looting properties of the collapsed building. LEADERSHIP observed a large contingent of both uniformed policemen and Civil Defence Corps operatives on guard,who also ensure that they ascetain the identity of journalists before allowing them access to the area.What a good development.Two more dead bodies were also recovered yesterday bringing the total number of recovered bodies to five. The remaining are still under the thick debris, and the sister buildings were also not befiiting of development control standard are Signs that they will soon collapsed is glaring.
The setting up of the investigative panel by Modibbo are a welcome development, but it should not stop there.The minister, just as he has started, should prosecute any official found wanting in this professional breach,so as to serve as deterrent to those who cut corners to kill people before they live. The panel is not only to determine the remote and immediate causes of the collapsed building; but would also determine whether all requirements for erecting such building were met.It would determine any act of commission or omission committed by any employee of FCTA/FCDA that contributed to the incident, make recommendations aimed at preventing future occurrence of such mishap
His words: "This Committee is also expected to review the integrity of other properties developed under the Accelerated Development Programme because we are not prepared to take any chance, for live is noble and sacred."
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