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Two persons died and four others rescued when a wall collapsed at Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja.
Officials of the FEMA, NEMA, Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Police Force, NSCDC and some volunteers were seen by our correspondent on Wednesday searching through the rubble for possible survivors.
Speaking with the Director General ,FEMA, Dr Abbass Iddriss in a telephone interview, he said:”Between 10 to 11 am, we received a distress call of collapse building around that Area, beside the UBA, so we have to draft our rescue team to quickly go there. On getting there, they discovered it was actually a wall that fell on those artisans working around that area.
“So far, 6 people were removed from the rubbles, two were fatally injured and four are presently in the hospital”.
On whether any fatal case was recorded, he said two people have been confirmed dead while four persons were injured.
According to him, the said building was “still under construction, at the foundation level when it collapsed, they ate into the next building, the adjoining building and the wall fell on them”.
On the causes of collapse, Iddriss explained that it was because the developers eat into the next building, encroaching on another building, because is not their building that fell , but the neighbors’ building that fell on them
On actions taken to forestall recurrence, he said: “the best we could do is to sensitise the people on what to do and also call on the stakeholders like the approving officers and agencies, development control, engineering services and other agencies to ensure that they give the proper approval, and they monitor the constructions going on in every location, that is the only way to go.
“Because, the approval is supposed to be in phases , as you give approval in phase one, when they do according to specification, you now give approval for the second phase.That is what is supposed to be, but giving blank approval to just go and start building, they can build with whatever material they deem fit .
“But in this case, we are not talking about the use of bad materials or inferior materials but is because they have extended their building space to eat into the neighbors wall”
He however, advised delopers to fear God in their dealings considering that they built the houses not for their families to occupy but for other third party to occupy, so they should know that if they kill innocent people, God will not hold them guiltless.
Most importantly, he said developers should obey the laws of the land especially as regarding to the laid down building rules.
Asked if there will be sanctions, the FEMA boss said :”definitely, all of them have laws that apply sanctions and I am also calling on all the responsible agencies to apply their own laws so that defaulters can be sanctioned .
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