Nasir Imam
21 September 2009
Abuja — The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has advocated death sentence for defaulters whose negligence leads to collapse of buildings in the country, saying it was worried that Nigerians often blame engineers when buildings collapse while in the actual sense quacks who are engaged by contractors and developers were responsible.
A statement from NSE's Head of Media and Publication, Ikenna Emeka Okpani, said the President of the Society, Engr. Kashim Ali blamed collapse of buildings on the quacks and developers operating in the sector whose primary motive was profit than security of lives and property.
He said a strong punishment would deter people from malpractices which lead to collapse of buildings and lots of lives and property.
Engr. Ali said the Nigerian Society of Engineers has set standards and peer review mechanisms which any of its members cannot flout in the execution of any project.
"No qualified engineer in this country would allow himself to die on his site and none of them would allow a building he is supervising to collapse because he would lose face among his colleagues and the NSE would meet out necessary disciplinary measures", he said.
He said the NSE has been involved in the investigation of the collapsed buildings in the country and has found out that most of them were as a result of use of quacks, substandard building materials, disregard of approved building plans and illegal extension without necessary modification.
He observed that it was to avert these occurrences that the society set up its Prevention, Investigation and Failure analysis Committee as the name implies to come out with ways of preventing failure through advice and advocacy; investigating when they occur and coming out with analysis of what led to such failures.
He said NSE was worried that that Nigerians always blame engineers when buildings collapse whereas those responsible were quacks and greedy developers. Under the new arrangement being developed by the NSE, the Prevention, investigation and Failure analysis committee would seek to meet with developers whose building has been reported to be defective to carry out test and offer advice where necessary.
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