Explosion alleged in Abia building collapse

Otti

As the Abia State Government and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria are set to launch their separate investigations over the collapse of a three-storey building in Umuahia in the early hours of last Saturday, a Umuahia-based legal practitioner, Goodman Iheikwunacho, on Wednesday urged them to look beyond preconceived factors and dig deeper.

He had also alleged that reports indicated a boom or explosion sound was heard before the building crumbled.

The two teams have indicated their interest in investigating the incident, as the state government, through the Umuahia Capital Development Authority, has announced that it was going to carry out investigations as well as an integrity test on the rest of the standing 2-storey buildings belonging to the same owner in the compound.

Fielding questions from newsmen in Umuahia following concerns generated by the unfortunate incident in which a 35-year-old woman, Blessing Ugochukwu, and her two young children miraculously survived, Iheikwunacho advised, “The scope of investigations should not be circumscribed but expanded beyond the obvious factors so that the real cause of the building collapse will be unravelled and future occurrences prevented.” Punch