3 dead, 20 rescued, more than 40 trapped as two-storey building collapses in Abuja

Three victims, twenty people were rescued and forty people are said to be trapped in a two-storey commercial building under construction on 7th Avenue in the Galadima area of ​​Gwarinpa in Abuja.

An eyewitness, John Edwin, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune, said he has lived in the area for many years and has always known it to be a reserved green area. According to him, workers on the site, especially workers carrying blocks to the top, were over 60 when the building collapsed.

Edwin urged the relevant authorities to call Federal Housing Authority management to question the illegal allocation of green areas to a commercial complex.

A few days later, during the presidential scorecard, the FCT minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, complained that Gwarinpa Estate is a creation of the federal government based in Abuja. Yet the process of overseeing that estate was not placed with the FCTA in the past.

Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) coordinator, Umar Shuaibu, confirmed the incident to journalists and said that while the council will not blame anyone, that investigation will begin immediately to determine both the distant and proximate cause of the collapse.

“If the supervising officials leave the construction site and the contractor or the developers leave, what they do outside is something else entirely. We must ensure that it is the professionals who supervise. Most quacks are involved. When you have quackery, anything can happen. However, we are on top of the situation.

Things like this are scarce in Abuja because of the standard monitoring that we have done from the monitoring of the city side, the Housing Authority also has its professionals.

We will make sure they do the right thing, especially those involved in this development. If punishments are imposed on the real people, that is appropriate, but now we are focusing on lives that need to be saved.

“At the time of the collapse, the building was a frame structure with columns, suspended slabs in place and some blockwork. Preliminary findings showed that approval for two floors was given to the developer, who decided to add an additional floor to the structure.

“Rescue efforts are currently underway to save lives, with responses from all relevant agencies. At the time of this release, a total of four people have been rescued from the rubble.
Ongoing investigations will reveal immediate and distant causes of the collapse.”

One of the survivors, Joshua, a resident of Benue State who survived with his brother Jonathan, said, “I didn’t want to come to work this morning, but my brother convinced me that we don’t have money to work for today. We give God the glory that two of us are still alive.”

“Police Commissioner CP Sadiq Abubakar, who personally visited the scene, has assured that the FCT Police will provide all necessary support to facilitate rescue operations and ensure that crooks do not take advantage of the situation. He equally pledged the command’s assistance to support the functions of building regulatory and investigative agencies within the FCT.

“The CP, describing the situation as very unfortunate, called on the residents of the area to remain vigilant and report any suspicious movement to the police. He prayed that the victims, especially those reportedly trapped under the rubble, would be rescued and stabilized.”