By Roland Ike
The Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) has commended the Ebonyi state government for providing necessary assistance to it in its investigation of a building which collapsed in Abakaliki on June 18.
The leader of the NBRRI investigating team on the building, Prof. Akaolisa Ezeagu made the commendation while inspecting the debris of the two-storey building owned by a member of the State House of Assembly.
Ezeagu thanked the Commissioner for Capital City Development and Urban Planning, Chief Sunday Inyima for conducting the team round the building’s debris and providing all documents it needed.
He said the committee was constituted by the NBRRI Director General, Prof. Samson Duna to investigate the cause of the collapsed building and recommend ways of forestalling such.
“We are not in Ebonyi to witch-hunt any one but to conduct scientific based investigation into the collapse and providing documented recommendations to forestall future occurrences.
“Building collapse has become a national menance but we are happy that Ebonyi ranks very low in such occurrences.
“Our recommendations on forestalling building collapse assist federal, state governments and developers to learn relevant lessons in checking such ugly occurrences.”
He called for concerted efforts from stakeholders to check building collapse due to inherent fatalities and economic losses.
The State Commissioner for Capital City Development and Urban Planning, Chief Sunday Inyima thanked the team for visiting the state at this period, noting that the government welcomes investigations of independent bodies in unraveling the cause of the collapse.
Inyima noted that the government was grateful to God that no life was lost in the incident as two trapped construction workers at the building were rescued alive while other workers escaped unhurt.
He thanked the team for visiting the state to conduct independent investigations into the collapsed building, noting that such showed it was proactive.
“The government needs the truth on the cause of the collapse and that was why I inaugurated an investigative committee on the issue.
“The interest shown by independent bodies in conducting investigations into the incident gives us hope of unraveling the remote cause of the collapse.”
He noted that the government’s investigative committee is jointly headed by state chairmen of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON).
“Your own report will be different from the state government’s committee and if we get a unified report, it will mean that a good job has been done.
“When there are differences in both reports, we would review such differences to unravel the true cause of the collapse.
“We hope to get recommendations from both committees that would help in forestalling future building collapse in the state.”
He thanked the team for rating Ebonyi very low in occurrences of building collapse, assuring that efforts would be intensified to forestall such occurrences.
