Gwarinpa  building collapse: 3 dead, 60 trapped as rescue efforts continue

 

.FHA blames developers for tragedy, vows punitive actions

Favour Ishember, Abuja

A two-storey building at the 6th Avenue, Gwarinpa, Federal Capital Territory, FCT collapsed on Thursday leaving three people dead with 60 others trapped as rescue operations intensified.

Speaking with newsmen at the site of collapsed building still under construction, the Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan management Council (AMMC) Umar Shuaib confirmed that six people have been rescued so far, while they continue rescue operations.

While the cause of building collapse is yet unknown, the coordinator said “our priority is to rescue lives first. We got here as fast as we could when we received the distress call”.

However, according to an eye witness, Mr Edwin John who lives on the same street, said the engineer working on the site at the time of collapse was the first to run out for his dear life and was followed by four others.

John, who claimed to have lived in the area for many years, said that he has always known the place to be a reserved Green area.

“The workers in the site, especially labourers conveying blocks to the top, were over 60”, he added.

He however, urged relevant authorities to call the management of Federal Housing Authority to question, for illegally allocating Green areas for the building of commercial complex.

Meanwhile, one of the survivors, Joshua from Benue State, said: “I was reluctant to come and work this morning, but my brother prevailed over me that we don’t have money we should work for today.

“We give God the glory that two of us are alive”
As at the time of filing report, 17 people have so far been rescued from the shambles.

Meanwhile, the Director, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Department of Development Control, Murktar Galadima, who confirmed the incident to journalists, said that 60 persons were apparently trapped under the rubbles of the building.

According to him, emergency responders with security personnel are on ground to rescue more persons.

“When the monitoring officers, leave the site and leave, the contractor or the developers, what they do outside is a different thing entirely. We have to make sure that it is the professionals that are supervising, most of the quacks are involved. When you have quackery, anything can happen, however, we are on top of the situation”

“Things like this are very rare in Abuja because of the standard monitoring that we engaged from the monitoring of the city side.

“Housing Authority also has their professionals. We are going to ensure that they do the right thing especially those who are involved in this development and definitely if there are punishment to be meted on the actual people, that will be done appropriately, but now we are focusing on lives to be rescued”.

Responding to a question on the rescue mission being slow, he said “you can say it’s slow because you are not the one that is involved and you don’t know the enominty of challenges. The slabs that are over the victims required a machine to lift them up. You can see how many machines that are here and you said it’s slow. For an operation like this, we have four escavators working, we have Federal Fire Service, NEMA, all the machines needed to conduct this operation are here. In fact, we are very fast , operations like this, at times take two three days before you get to the bottom of the shambles” he added

Meanwhile, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) has vowed to take appropriate actions against the developer of the two-storey building which collapsed in the Gwarimpa Area of Abuja on Thursday.
FHA’s Head of Public Affairs, Kenneth Chigelu, who disclosed this to newsmen at the site of the collapsed building, acknowledged that the developers compromised the approval granted to them by the FHA.

According to him, “Preliminary findings revealed that an approval for two floors was granted by the Federal Housing Authority to the developer, who decided to add an extra floor to the structure”.

It will be recalled that Gwarinpa District is an area allocated to the FHA by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) for the development of mass housing estates.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) Engr. Shehu Hadi Ahmed has expressed concern over what he described as “indiscriminate changes in land use within the Gwarimpa District”.

Engr. Ahmed who spoke when he led a team of FCT Administration officials to the site of the collapsed building, assured that concerted efforts were being made to rescue all persons suspected to be trapped within the roubles of the collapsed structure.

Also speaking, the Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) Umar Shuaibu said investigations will commence immediately to ascertain both the remote and immediate cause of the collapse.

Director of Development Control, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Muktar Galadima said that those rescued have been taken to hospital for medical attention.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), FEMA, Alhaji Abbas Idriss, confirmed that the rescue workers have far rescued 23 affected persons out of that two were fatally injured and most of the people rescued are responding while some were even communicating under the rubbles.

He added that, ” as far as we are concerned this is a very successful operation and I want to use this opportunity to thank the stakeholders and the media.

” We want you to report it as you have seen it,. Those under the rubbles will be brought out before we get to ground zero

As far as we are concerned this is a very successful operation and I want to use this opportunity to thank the stakeholders and the media”.

“We want you to report it as you have seen it. Those under the rubbles will be brought out before we get to ground zero”, he added.

Our reporters confirmed that three site workers were confirmed dead, about 20 rescued, while many were said to still be trapped under the rubbles of the two-storey commercial complex.

According to an eye witness, John Edwin, the workers in the site, especially laborers conveying blocks to the top, were over 50.

He claimed to have lived in the area for many years, and that he has always known the place to be a reserved green area.

Edwin urged relevant authorities to sanction the management of Federal Housing Authority for illegally allocating Green areas for the development of commercial structures.

Also, upon arrival at collapse building, the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Shehu Hadi Ahmad said “we really want to express our deep sense of concern and condolences to the families of those affected by this incident and we commensurate with all Nigerians especially the residents of FCT coming at a time when as a nation we are trying to come out of this worisome issues of building collapses in Nigeria.
“These are issues which the FCT environment was not very prominent with but because of some activities of quackery this have come into FCT and FCT Administration is really not too happy with this happenings.

“Not too long ago, specifically on Monday when the Minister of FCT led his team of management staff to go and deliver the President Muhamadu Buhari scorecard for all the activities of FCT administration within the period of 2015 till date, single out this particular environment as a response to question from the media regarding when do we have some form of changes in land uses in Gwarinpa Estate.

“Gwarinpa Estate is one of the largest estate you can find in Africa and the Minister response was that Gwarinpa would have been developed into a very beautiful district, because there are two districts that form Gwarinpa Estate, Bunkorob and Wumpa districts .
“Unfortunately, the standard and specifications of adherence here embarked upon by another agency of the Federal Government which is not the FCT or the FCDA with their own development control guidelines separate from that of the FCT has caused chaotic situation that we are seeing.

“This is not the first one we have experienced in Gwarinpa . This is about the second or third incidents in this
estate”.

While commensurating with the residents of Gwarinpa and in particular FCT residents in general, he said “we want to give this assurance that the FCT administration will stop at no limit to identify those who would have been involve in this unfortunate development.
“One preliminary report, that the land area which the property development is standing on does not look well stabilized, there is even the presumption of use of inferior materials in the construction as well as the workmanship.
“This, the FCT Administration will take very seriously and engage the agencies involved to find a lasting solution to the situation.

Fielding question from newsmen on the involvement of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) in the construction of the collapsed building, he said we are not here to trade blames at this time because already, the Minister has directed me as the Executive Secretary of FCDA to engage the authority of the Federal Housing Authority on matters that we have for long, now been looking into.

“There is a whole committee, inter agency committee between the FCTA and the FHA and the Federal Ministry of Works to discuss matters of synergy and seeing to the adherence of what are the development regulations in the FCT.
As far as the FCT is concerned, FCT has one standard and building development code of compliance, we cannot have two captains in a ship.

“This, we are going to take up with the Federal Housing Authority and I believe is not in their interest to see that some of this things that is coming up. Revelation, we have heard from the Director of FEMA and the Director Development Control. Two lives lost out of the 23 recovered, but we are still in the search and rescue operation which might take through the night, we might get some recoveries .
“We are going to engage FHA to see how we can find a lasting solution to this kind of unfortunate incident.