HENCEFORTH, unqualified and fake engineers, parading themselves in Ebonyi State are to be apprehended and made to face the heavy weight of the law.

Such was the resolution, when the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) held their Annual General Meeting (AGM) Dinner/Inauguration of new executives of Abakaliki Branch of NSE.

The newly sworn-in Abakaliki branch Chairman of NSE, Mr. Paul Okorie who read the riot act said that professional engineering is not acquired in the field but obtained through formal education and advised every fake engineer to go and purchase JAMB form and enroll in any engineering faculty of the Nigeria Universities.

Appreciating his colleagues' trust in him and other members of the executives, Okorie pledged not to betray the confidence. "My promise is that this association will become more vibrant than ever, we will not fail in any way...we will go against fake engineers who parade themselves as engineers causing havoc," he said.

Okorie, Ebonyi State commissioner for Works and Transport and who represented Governor Martin Elechi on the occasion challenged the NSE to bring up measures that would stem the growing incidence of collapsed buildings in the country, saying that appropriate strategy must be designed to fish out culprits and make them face necessary sanctions.

He regretted that the issue of collapsed buildings has become an embarrassing national tragedy with attendant human and material loss, saying that it was the responsibility of the Society to check the hazard by ensuring effective monitoring and regulation of activities of members and by exposing quacks that run down the image and reputation of engineers in the country.