24 escape death in Anambra building collapse
NO fewer than 24 people have reportedly escaped death when two separate buildings under construction collapsed in Anambra State,
It was gathered that one of the buildings, a two-storey collapsed in Amikwo village, Awka, the state capital in the early hours of Wednesday while another two-storey building also collapsed in Oko, Aguata Local Government Area of the state on the previous day.
Four persons were reportedly trapped inside the debris in the Oko building but were rescued with injuries, while about 20 persons reportedly escaped death in that of Amikwo.
The Amikwo building reportedly collapsed at about 2 am, falling on a two-storey building nearby.
Though no life was lost, building materials worth millions of naira were destroyed in the unfortunate incident.
The first floor of the two storey building reportedly sank into the ground, while the remaining portion fell and is leaning on a neighbouring two storey building with occupants.
While blaming the collapse to poor mixture and reinforcement, the occupants said that for fear of the unknown, many of them stayed off the building.
The Amikwo building has been sealed by officials of the Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA).
Managing Director, ACTDA, Ven Amaechi Okwuosa, who confirmed the incident revealed that the building had been under construction for the past ten years and was marked for demolition in 2018.
“Although the developer had commenced demolition of the building, the right equipment was not used, hence the collapse,” he said.
While appreciating God that there was no casualty, Venerable Okwuosa stressed that there are many of such buildings which have being marked by their engineers.