ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Two people have been confirmed dead while many others sustained injuries as four-storey building with two swimming pools on the third floor collapsed in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The incident occurred last Saturday evening, making it the second building to have collapsed in Uyo in the last seven years, after the Reigners Church building collapsed and killed more than 30 people.
The building sited at No. 7, Iman Street was surprisingly said to be a hotel, as its location in the seeming ghetto and inner city of the town makes such a claim incredible.
Chrstopher Uto, who lives near the collapsed structure, disclosed that the incident occurred about 5.30pm on Saturday.
He said the building was almost completed when it collapsed, Sun reports.
The Akwa Ibom State Deputy Governor, Mr Moses Ekpo, who visited the scene on Sunday, to sympathise with the families of the departed, was however, disappointed that neither of them, the engineers handling the project, nor any of the relations of the owner of the property, said to be based abroad was on site.
He expressing his condolences to the affected families, and stressed that a panel would be set up to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the collapse.
“We don’t know the family that has lost people. I use this opportunity to pay the Governor’s condolences to that family and to give his assurance that the government would investigate this matter till the root of it.
“We want to know exactly what happened. Was this building approved? If it was approved, what was the approval? What happened? I want to say to families who have lost their loved ones, the people of this area and the entire people of Uyo, that the souls of the departed rest in peace. But government would investigate this matter till the bottom of it. And if there are culprits, they will be apprehended and dealt with, because there are building laws. If laws were infringed, it is going to be possible that this is what led to what is happening here.”
When told that nothing may happen to deter future occurrences, the deputy governor said: “We don’t know the owner of the building. We want to find out from the owner; ‘were you given an approval and what was the approval for.’ We want to know if approval was not given by the government and if it was given, did they keep to the terms of the approval. So nothing will happen until people come out and claim responsibilities.
“We want to know the personalities involved and talk with them to find out what happened. It is not a social media matter. It is not hearsay. We need to see them. This government is not an earmark, but an eye-mark.” Ekpo said.
On his part, the South-South Zonal co-ordinator of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Godwin Tepicor, said when he heard about the incident by 7pm on Saturday, he mobilised relevant stakeholders like the police, state emergency management agency, the FRSC, Civil Defence and fire service to the site.
He noted that, so far, only two people have been confirmed dead; the one who died on Saturday due to multiple injuries and the other one whose remains were recovered from the debris yesterday morning.