A three- storey building undergoing construction in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi has reportedly collapsed.
The said building, sited along Nkaliki Road, opposite the Abakaliki Local Government Council Headquarters, collapsed on Wednesday.
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According to the Nation, no casualties were recorded in the incident owing to the absence of workers who had not resumed work for the day as at the time the building collapsed.
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Top government officials who visited the scene of the collapse include the Secretary to the State Government Kenneth Ugbala; Commissioner for Internal Security, Stanley Okoro Emegha; Special Assistant to the Governor on Capital Territory, Chinyelu Udoku and Chairman of Abakaliki Capital Territory Development Board (ACTDB) Dr Uche Onwe.
An immediate sealing off of the site and demolition of the building was directed by the SSG, Ugbala, while Emegha ordered for the immediate arrest of the site engineer by the police.
On his part, Udoku directed that the the staff who approved the building and all those in charge of monitoring the construction be produced by the ACTDB.
According to Onwe, preliminary investigations revealed that the builders used sub-standard materials and the building had a lot of structural defects.
“The Engineer attached to the building did not do any professional work. The quality of iron rods, the mixture, concreting are not up to standard.
“You can see we have sealed it, there is a lot of compromises even from the foundation,” he said.
The chairman said the Board has launched an investigation into the incident, adding all those found culpable will be arrested and prosecuted.
“The building is going to be demolished today and evacuated. Every building has a town planner, an Engineer and a professional builder attached but in the course of construction these people compromise
“This structure wasn’t approved during my time but we take responsibility for it because government is a continuum.
“We will trace the file to know if it was actually approved for three story and if it followed the stipulated standard.
“We will make arrests and prosecuted them as soon as possible, “he said.
