The member representing Aninri in Enugu State House of Assembly has told residents there should be no fear as plans are under way to forestall future occurrences of building collapse in the Coal city.
InfoWars reported that a four-storey hotel under construction adjacent Niger Foundation collapsed early Sunday morning, buried a man to dead and left four others half-dead. The incident has since generated tension among residents, once again raising question of the government agencies’ preparedness to protect lives and properties in the state.
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Addressing newsmen when he visited the scene yesterday, Hon Magnus Ede described the development as sad especially as a life was lost.
“This incident is a very bad one indeed. A very bad development indeed, most especially when a life was lost,” the lawmaker said, agreed that Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria indeed ought to be given the chance to do its work.
A member of House Committee on Works, Ede is also a member of COREN. He listed some of his efforts, including several discussions with the Commissioner of Works on the need to allow COREN to participate in construction regulations in the state.
He added that he would be raising motion of urgent attention in the Assembly to further highlight the need for COREN to be part of the regulators.
“As a lawmaker, I want to take the bull by the horns by making sure we raise a motion of urgent attention for the state to allow COREN to do their work.
“Because if they eventually allow them to do their work, developments such as this will be a thing of the past,” the legislator said.
It’s not the first time a building is falling in Enugu. On June 9, 2018 a one-storey building gave way at Ida-Ibeku in Opi community of Nsukka local government area, killing one persons with three others wounded. Sometimes in September 2019, a three-storey under construction collapsed at Monarch Avenue in Enugu South local government area; three weeks later another house – fully occupied 10-flat residential building collapsed at Precious Junction, One-Day Road in Enugu South council area. Also, in April 2020 a three-storey uncompleted building in Awkunanaw axis of Enugu metropolis fell to rubbles. Whether or not lives were lost in these and more other instances, their constant recurrences ought to shock the conscience of every decent person. And that’s precisely what COREN is concerned about.
According to Weekend Trust, more than 90 persons died, many more fatally injured or permanently disabled, and billions of naira went down the drain across Nigeria as a direct consequences of building collapse alone between 2023 and 2024.