Breaking: Wike Orders Immediate Arrest of Owner of Collapsed Abuja Building
- The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, Nyesom Wike, has ordered the immediate arrest of the landlord of the two-storey building that collapsed in Lagos Crescent located in Garki 2 of Abuja
- Rescue operations were carried out, and many occupants were evacuated to medical centres in the FCT
- Nigeria has recorded several building collapse cases in recent times. A public affairs analyst told Legit.ng that regulatory agencies should be blamed for the ugly trend.
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FCT, Abuja - Nyesom Wike, the new minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), on Thursday, August 24, ordered the immediate arrest of the owner of a two-storey building that collapsed in Abuja.
The building collapsed on the night of Wednesday, August 23.
Source: Twitter
Wike visits scene of Abuja building collapse
The building had at least 39 residents. Two have been certified dead, while 37 rescued were taken to various hospitals.
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A report by Vanguard newspaper noted Wike's order.
Wike said:
“It is unfortunate that we woke this morning to the very disturbing news of this building collapse.
"It is unfortunate that we lost two lives. I will appeal to the Permanent Secretary to make sure that funds are raised to pay the hospital bills of those who were rescued so that we do not lose any more person, and this should be done immediately."
2 die in Abuja building collapse
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Abuja residents were thrown into mourning in the early hours of Thursday, August 24, as a two-storey building collapsed.
The incident happened at Lagos Street, Garki Village, in the Garki area of the FCT.
Eyewitnesses have been sharing their experiences on social media.
"Your houses will go down", Wike
Legit.ng also reported that Wike on Monday, August 21, left tongues wagging shortly after he assumed office.
The former Rivers governor arrived at the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) at about 1:20 p.m. for his first media briefing after his swearing-in ceremony.
Wike was accompanied by a mammoth crowd into the building of the FCTA.
Demolition threat: “FCT not Rivers”, lawyer
In another related news, Legit.ng reported that human rights lawyer, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor warned Wike that the Nigerian administrative centre is not Rivers state.
In a cryptic social media post, Ejiofor predicted that Wike would take an “anarchical path”.
20 people rescued -- Police speak on collapsed Abuja building
In a statement on Thursday, August 23, Josephine Adeh, the FCT police command spokesperson, told Legit.ng that 20 people have been rescued from the collapsed building.
The command has deployed every effort to locate and extricate those who are trapped. So far, 20 persons have been rescued from the scene while 2 others unfortunately lost their lives.
We are working in close coordination with other relevant agencies, including the Fire Service, Emergency Medical Services, and disaster response teams to streamline our rescue efforts.
Corruption, regulatory lapses responsible for building collapse in Nigeria
Speaking with Legit.ng on Thursday, August 23, Sunday Elom, a public affairs analyst, said corruption and regulatory lapses should be blamed for the recurring cases of building collapse across major cities in the country.
He said:
I am not actually surprised at the unfortunate rate of building collapse incidents in Nigeria without reasonable deterring actions being taken by the appropriate authorities.
We are seeing the manifestation of corruption that has become a certified occupant in the government agencies in charge of quality control and quality assessment of building and construction materials, resources, contractors, developers, and engineers.
When most of the same engineers and contractors building the substandard structures that are collapsing are the same people doing everything possible to get contracts from the regulatory agencies and authorities and paying kickbacks to the same regulatory agents and authorities, do you expect independent, objective, and authoritative actions against the defaulters?
The defaulters and the disciplinarians are eating from the same pot; hence, they know what each other knows, and anyone who makes too much noise or try to take the necessary action should be ready to also face the hangman noose of another crime he had committed because he would be implicated.
Don't also forget that many of our regulatory agents in the building and construction sector and other higher authorities are also the same business tycoons who own many substandard building material outlets in the country that the professional quark engineers use for their epileptic constructed building and bridges across the country.
Source: Legit.ng
