3-Storey Building Collapses In Ebonyi, Govt Orders Arrest Of Site Engineer

Ebonyi State Government has ordered the arrest of a site engineer after a three-story building under construction collapsed.

The government ordered that the site which is located at the Nkaliki area of Abakaliki, in the Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state be sealed.

The decision was made after Secretary to the State Government, Mr Kenneth Ugbala; Commissioner for Internal Security, Mr Stanley Emegha; Special Assistant to the Governor on Capital Territory, Chinyelu Udoku, and Chairman of Abakaliki Capital Territory Development Board, Dr Uche Onwe visited the site to confirm the incident.

The government frowned at the engineer in charge of the project, noting that materials used on the three-storey building are sub-standards.

Naija News, however, learnt that no death or any casualty was recorded in the incident, as workers on the site were yet to resume work before the incident. Ugbala, however, ordered that the site should be closed with immediate effect.

The authorities also called for total demolition of the remaining structure while it ordered the immediate arrest of the site engineer.

On his part, the SA to the governor on Capital Territory, the ACTDB should without further delay produce staff that approved the building and all those in charge of monitoring the project. “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,” he said.

“You can see we have sealed it, there is a lot of compromises even from the foundation. An investigation into the incident has been launched. All those found culpable will be arrested and prosecuted.”

He added, “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 compromised. This structure wasn’t approved during my time, but we take responsibility for it because the 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 prosecute them as soon as possible.”

This is coming two weeks after Naija News reported that a three-storey building collapsed at number 20 Freeman street in Lagos Island killing one and injuring six others.