One person have been confirmed dead and several people were said to have sustained various degree of injuries from the one story building which collapsed in Minna, the Niger State capital on Friday evening.
The building which was being used mainly as a warehouse for different brands of soft and energy drinks situated at a density populated area in the state capital, went down at about 5pm when goods were being off-loaded inside.
One of the several workers who sustained injuries died on Saturday morning where they were rushed to for medical attention after the building collapsed.
Eyewitness said the over 30 years old residential building was converted to a story building by the owner and rented out as warehouse where all brands of soft drinks and energy drinks were being kept.
Although the owner of the collapsed property could not be reached for his comment over the incident as he was said to have gone underground, the Chairman, Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), Niger State chapter, Engineer Nasiru Ilo blamed the incident on the developer who failed to seek a professional guide while converting the property into a story building.
Engineer Ilo while speaking with newsmen shortly after undertaken on the spot assessment of the collapsed building, equally blamed all government agencies responsible for supervision and approving building plans, saying that the developer did not get government approval to convert the existing building into a story building.
According to him, “from all indications, intergrity test on the existing building was not carried out but agency responsible to be able to offer professional advice on what to do. What has happened here today is a huge failure on the part of the government and it agencies responsible for building regulations”.
He pointed out that the state urban development board which is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and ensuring compliance has over the years failed in it responsibility.
Engineer Nasiru attributed the failure of the urban development board to lack of adequate manpower to carry out it responsibility, stressing that “as I speak with you now, the state urban development board which is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring property developers is lacking in manpower.
“You see building construction going on everywhere in the state without proper supervision and monitoring because the state urban board has no enough manpower. That is why we see substandard building everywhere.
“It is unfortunate that we have continued to witness building collapse in the country due to lack of proper monitoring the activities of property developers who often times used substandard materials to the disregards of professionals”.
He therefore called for stiffer penalty for those property developers who failed to engage the services of a professional, resulting in the use of substandard materials, adding that “I think that is the only way we can minimize this frequent incidences of collapse buildings in the country”.
Meanwhile there is no statement yet from government over the incident as at the time of filing this report, Saturday.