Tordue Salem
2 August 2008
While Abuja residents are still coming to terms with the collapse of a building in Abuja which trapped 70 people, an expert analyses why the building came crashing down.
WHILE presenting a bill in the House of Representatives to amend the National Building Code last month, Hon. Nnanna Orji Kalu foresaw a building collapsing on a multitude. For a legislator not skilled in the art of inducing fear for effect, his warning passed unheeded. But on Tuesday, July 29, precious lives were buried in a rubble at Utako.
At about 3:20 p.m., on that black day, a member of a family of fragile buildings at Utako District, Mafemi Crescent, off Augustus Aikhomu Crescent, Jabi, near the Media Trust Office, came crashing over100 builders and hangers on. With government's routine failure to be fast to rescue hapless citizens, one of the first rescue workers to get to the scene, as usual, was the Red Cross Society.
The Abuja branch secretary of the Red Cross Society, Mr. Nwaubani, in an interview with Sunday Vanguard on the collapsed building, said, "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 (Wednesday) morning. The body recovered this morning was still fresh. That shows that if the emergency situation was better, he would have survived."
The emergency problem is attributable to the failure of governance. On January 18, 2008, the director general of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Air Vice Marshal Audu Bida, told the Senate Committee on Federal Character that the Federal Government was owing the agency N9.4 billion of un-remitted ecological funds, which would have gone a long way to acquire a warehouse of emergency equipment. "N9.4billion ecological fund which should have been remitted to the agency was not remitted. In 2007, the agency was to receive N4.7billion, but, unfortunately, we got nothing", Bida said.
The Senate Committee on Federal Character chaired by Sen. Smart Adeyemi also discovered that NEMA had only one rescue helicopter, prompting Adeyemi to suggest that "you write the President as I am sure he would attend to you; one helicopter for NEMA is not enough." Following that dark Tuesday, the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, resolved, among other things, to summon the minister of Federal Capital Territory Administration to brief it on the cause of the tragedy. A matter of urgent public importance motion, raised by Hon. Atai Ali Aidoko (PDP Kogi), drew the attention of the House to the collapsed structure.
The motion noted "with grief the collapse of a massive building under construction in Utako District of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja yesterday July 29, 2008." It further noted "with grave concern that hundreds of innocent persons have been trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building." The mover of the motion said he suspected "a breach of the National Building Code in the construction of the building resulting in its collapse and consequent loss of lives and injuries to many persons", while he enjoined the House of Representatives to the be "mindful of its responsibilities to residents of the Federal Capital Territory under section 299 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."
Former House Committee Chairman on FCT, Hon. 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 been trapped in its rubble." He advised the house to "look at ways to bring to an end to the continuous collapse of buildings in the country." The chairman, House Committee on Housing and Habitat, Hon. Shehu Garba Matazu (PDP Katsina), who was also at the building collapse site earlier with Speaker Bankole 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."
After a heated debate, the House resolved to "urge the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and all relevant agencies involved in the rescue and recovery operation to intensify efforts towards speedy rescue of the casualties." The House also resolved "to investigate the cause of its collapse and recommend measures to avert further incidents", while mandating "the Committee on Federal Capital Territory Administration to invite the Hon. Minister of FCT to brief the House on steps and measures taken to forestall the recurrence of this incidence." Of the over 70 lives buried by the debris, only two were rescued on that Tuesday. They were dead. Three more had to wait till Wednesday. They too were recovered dead. Others who were seriously wounded were immediately driven to hospitals.
Building hands and experts alike said the massive building which was supposed to be home to 700 shops was virtually built from the foundation up with much sand and little cement. Although quantity of each material could not be exactly determined at press time, reporters and observers on scene all agreed it was one huge and shoddy job done by a deeply callous and fraudulent contractor. Before its collapse, it was also learned that the builders had noticed a crack on the building, and its thin pillars which were visibly fragile, even though the contractors hired about 200 builders, each of them taking home on a daily basis N1,800.
Also disheartening was that even when officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), NEMA, Federal Fire Service, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, Vehicle Insurance Office(VIO) and the police arrived the scene, they could do virtually nothing to save the situation. No government bulldozer hit the scene, except bulldozers of Dantata & Sawoe, Arab Contractors and others from Bulet Construction Nigeria Limited which arrived at exactly 6:16 p.m., shortly after the Chairman of Bulet himself appeared on the scene. Others at the scene were the minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar, the inspector general of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, the commissioner of Police FCT, Mr. John Haruna, commandant-general, Civil Defence Corps, Dr. Ade Abolurin, Bida, chairman, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Zephaniah Jisalo and Hon. Philip Tanimu Aduda.
The FCTA minister, who is billed to appear before National Assembly members, though talks tough, there is no guarantee that the same tragedy would be averted in the near future. This minister, like his predecessor, goes with a swagger, pontificating about what is best for the Federal capital. After describing the said incident as sad for Abuja and Nigeria, he went ahead to threaten that government would drag the contractors to court after due investigations.
But, sadly, we have heard too many empty talks before. The question to ask is: Where was the FCTA Department of Development Control when the builders set out to build on that space? Where were officials at the Development Control Office when even laymen feared the building stood an imminent danger to lives?
How come, a seemingly solid building, standing opposite the collapsed building was marked for demolition, leaving a glaringly wobbly one untouched by a demolition warning? There was just a pinch of respite when news came later on Wednesday that the Minister of FCTA, instead of sacking his assistant director, building permit, Mrs. Amina Egella and its district officer, Utako, Mr. Umoru Halilu, only suspended them. But the minister's special assistant (communications), Mr. Diran Onifade, told reporters that the developer was severally warned to stop work on the site, but he defied the order of the FCTA, until the tragedy occurred. "Preliminary investigations so far show that the building belonging to Exposee Nigeria Limited was being constructed on Plots 230 and 1161, POW Mafemi Crescent Utako. The company directors include include Jimmy Davies of Plot 1154, Sirass Crescent, off Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II Abuja; Casafina Trading Company," Onifade said.
He added, "Plot 230 was originally allocated to Exposee under the Accelerated Development programme of the FCTA on December 5, 2005. Exposee got building approval only in respect of Plot 230. However, the company went ahead to extend the building to adjourning 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: August 13, 2007-stop work notice; September 20, 2007-quit notice; December 4, 2007-demolition notice. However, the company, in defiance of the several notices to stop work, continued building until the unfortunate collapse of the structure."
The commissioner for insurance, National Insurance Commission of Nigeria, Mr. Fola Daniels, said the building was not insured. His words: "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 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, president, Abuja chapter of the Builders Association of Nigeria (BAN), said the quality of materials on site were poor. "You can see the quality of materials on site. If you carry it and feel it in your hands, you will notice that it is sand and no cement. One major cause here, apart from the structural design is that 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 storey-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 makeshift engineer working on site, he will not cast this kind of concrete," Attahiru stated. The director general of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Dr. John Akaya, on Wednesday, also dispatched a team from the organisation to pick samples of the materials used for the building for testing. But the question still being asked is, after the blame game and routine investigations, would the government mete out punishment to serve as deterrent?
Bankole had, in a statement he issued on Wednesday, called on the executive to prosecute anybody found to be a culprit in that tragedy, with the hope that at the end of the day, the Federal Government would not pass the buck, when the sad incident happened under its watch.
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