April 28, (THEWILL)- Last Friday’s building collapse in Kuntau, Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State, which claimed three lives and injured two others, is just one of a few cases that have been reported this year alone.
The three-storey building under construction in the area, according to the Kano State Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Dr Nuradeen Abdullahi, had caved in early Friday morning, trapping an unspecified number of workers before rescue workers were alerted.
“Five persons were rescued and rushed to Murtala Mohammed Hospital where three of them were confirmed dead, while the remaining two who sustained injuries are currently receiving treatment,” Abdullahi said.
The Kano incident is coming about a month after a five-storey shopping complex, also under construction, on Basden Street, Fegge in Onitsha, Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra State, collapsed after a downpour, trapping some of the construction workers on the last floor.
Only three weeks before the Fegge building collapse, a three-storey building had also collapsed in the same Onitsha, claiming the lives of no fewer than six persons at the Odu-Igbo section of the Ochanja Market.
THEWILL recalls that also in February, a three-storey building under renovation in the Binuyo area, off Ita Faaji Market on Lagos Island had caved in during a morning downpour with few of the workers on site escaping unhurt, according to a statement signed by the Director of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Services, Magaret Adeseye.
The Federal Capital Territory also had its share of building collapse as a two-storey building in the Garki area of Abuja collapsed last August during a downpour , killing two people and injuring others who were trapped under the rubble.
Substandard materials used in the construction of most of the affected buildings were responsible for most of the incidents, with failure on the part of the regulatory authorities to act when necessary as also a causal factor.
The Building Collapse Prevention Guild actually listed 2022 as the year with the most building collapses in the country with 62 collapses, even as Lagos State remains the state with the highest number of collapses.
With 20 incidents alone in 2022 and an estimated 315 others between 1974 and July 2022, the Guild listed some of the most recent incidents to include the three-storey building collapse in Yaba; a three-storey building collapse in Ebute-Metta and the three-storey building collapse in the Oniru area of Lekki.
While the Lagos State Government is putting measures in place to stop these unfortunate incidents through effective and efficient mechanisms for building approvals and soil testing through its agencies, corrupt officials who manipulate approvals for financial gain must be shown the way out of the system.
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) also needs to step up its game in building materials testing, especially iron rods, to ensure that fake and substandard materials do not flood our markets, just as quacks in the building and construction industry must be exposed.
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