Two kill as building under construction collapses in Abuja

On Wednesday, April 19, a building collapsed in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), causing TWO people to perish.

Six construction workers were trapped when an adjacent fence collapsed onto the building, which was still under construction.

Eyewitnesses claim that the building’s foundation was drilled too closely to the homes nearby, which damaged the neighbouring building’s fence and caused it to collapse.

Adebayo Amiola, Head of Operations, FCT Fire Service, confirmed eyewitness accounts by telling reporters at the scene that there was no retaining wall around the building that might have prevented the incident.

Four of the six trapped individuals were found alive, while two others suffered fatal injuries. The building was under construction, and men working on the site were injured when the nearby fence to the main building fell.

Amiola claimed that because there was no retaining wall added while the building’s future location was being excavated, the nearby wall collapsed onto the workers.

He claimed that the injured people had been taken to the General Hospital in Asokoro for medical care.

A previous order had stopped work at the location until the necessary precautions were taken, according to Mukhtar Usman Galadima, director of the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority’s (FCDA) Department of Development Control.

Even stopping the work here, the Department of Development Control has exercised all of its authority. The developer, perhaps acting on the advice of his engineer, did not heed the warning, and this incident ensued.

“Because when performing this type of activity, you must shore it up and maintain the wall to prevent collapse. Until this incident occurred this morning, we were unaware that work had resumed.

Read also: Breaking: Fire destroys Oyo state broadcasting corporation [PHOTOS]

At the scene were members of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), FCT Fire Service, and National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), among others.

Three people were killed on Thursday, February 2, when a three-story building still under construction in the FCT’s Gwarimpa neighbourhood collapsed.

Subsequently, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) cancelled the allocation for the land where the building was being built.

Additionally, a shopping mall building collapsed in 2022, killing at least two people in the Kubwa neighbourhood of the FCT.