Nigeria: why four-storey building collapsed in Abuja

A panel set up by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to investigate the cause of building collapse which took place in Jabi on August 17 has submitted its report.

The chairman of the panel and Director-General of Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Danladi Matawal, said the collapse of the four-storey building was mainly due to “poor structural and architectural pre-examination before the commencement of building in 2005”.

According to a press statement from the FCTA, the official said the work on the building was abandoned but recommenced in January 2018 “without any proper revalidation of the building”. Mr Matawal called for appropriate disciplinary measures against indicted officers.

He also blamed the developer for unprofessional practices, especially in the commencement of work without adequate and comprehensive documents in place. As a means of checking quackery in the building process, the chairman recommended the use of qualified FCTA’s pool of site officers and engineers at building sites. The administration had set up a panel of enquiry to unravel both the immediate and remote causes of the building collapse, with a view to stemming future occurrences.

Meanwhile, the FCTA has said it will overhaul its Department of Development Control to strengthen to cope with the ever-increasing building activities in the FCT. The minister, who was represented at the occasion by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Chinyeaka Ohaa, said the FCTA is on the verge of breathing “new life into the department to make it function more efficiently and give developers value for their money”.

He said the recommendations made by the committee would help to curtail these incidents to the barest minimum. Activities in the Jabi area of Abuja were put on hold when the four-storey building under construction collapsed on August 17.