By David Ndife, Awka.
At the wake of yesterday incident that saw a one story building still under construction suddenly collapsed, Officials of the Awka Capital Territory Development Agency (ATCDA) has sealed off the popular Eke Oyibo Market over the incident that led to the death of two persons at the early hours of yesterday.
Speaking during the closure, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA) Hon. Ossy Onuko represented by the Head Development Control of the Authority, Town Planner Charles Ekwunife described the collapse as rather sad and unfortunate and stated that such incidents could be avoided if developers follow proper procedures and comply with the state building laws.
According to the Mr Onuko the closure of the market became necessary to allow investigations and tests conducted on the integrity of the materials used in the building to ascertain the cause of the collapse and to determine the consequences, noting that the developers failed to comply with the constitutional regularly standard of Building Construction Engineering Association of Nigeria to allow a decking last for twenty-one days in order to dry properly before continuation of the construction project, which according to him is the major cause of the collapse.
Mr. Onuko reiterated the Authority’s commitment in ensuring the safety of structures in Anambra, pointing out that Governor Soludo has consistently stressed the necessity of planning permits for every structure in the state, with violators subject to punishment.
While expressing his sympathy with victims of the incident, Mr. Onuko pointed out that the Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s led administration has no room for impunity and warned that anybody, association, groups or facilities found wanting under any circumstance in the state would be severely dealt with.
Reacting, the Acting Chairman of the Eke Oyibo Market, Amawbia, Mr. Nwachukwu Uchendu thanked the state government for prompt intervention. He however lamented that the rather ugly and regrettable incident would have been avoided if the developers had listen to order by the relevant Awka Capital City Authorities to stop work. He equally added that the contractors had also earlier been warned to stop the construction but they refused.
He frowned at the quality of work done by the contractor and called on the relevant government authorities to enact active measures to stop further occurrence of such ugly incident..
The Awka South Local Government Area Transition Committee Chairman, Prince Chinedu Okafor and the Commander, Dobe Awka Ocha Enforcement Team, Prince Ikechukwu Ndigwe expressed their displeasure over the unfortunate incident and assured of proper investigation and sanctions to be melted on the developers according to the state law.
The Authorities also visited one of the survivor at Regina Ceali Hospital where she’s presently receiving treatment.
About Author
