MANY are now feared dead as more than ten site workers at a 5-storey building collapsed right beside a popular filling station on Ogili road.
Sources said no fewer than fifteen persons including a site engineer were buried in the rubbles of the construction that has since raised many questions about the quality of materials used in the construction of the building.
Eye-witnesses said there had been “a sound of possible crack in the building since Tuesday. What I can say is that no less than fifteen people were inside the building as at the time of the incident”.
They asserted that the building collapsed at about 9;57 am and that they head “a deafening sound that was like a sand tipper offloading sand”. She noted that “I think about fifteen of those boys including women who went there (and they have always been there) to hawk food for the workers”.
Mr Iyke Okoro, assistant commissioner of police, Rivers state command said one person was so far found dead while three others were alive and taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention.
Okoro disclosed that the major factor responsible for the collapse of the building was because “they used a substandard material for the construction” adding that “how can you use a 16mm rods for such a rising building? That is not the standard”, he said.
According to him, “not less than ten persons including the site engineer are trapped in the rubbles”
Also speaking at the scene of the incident, Mr Yibotemeke Kalio, of Nigerian Red Cross society confirmed that there were about fifteen persons trapped in the rubble, saying that “some of them were using the place as a sleeping place. It was an active place”, he said.
Some eye witnesses blamed the incident on the Rivers State Government. They blamed the state government for not “standing up” to implement the laws as regarding the construction of high rise buildings in the state.
“in 2019, a high rise building at worji collapsed. A commission of was setup, after several months of pain staking investing, the report was submitted to the state government, guess what, it was swept under the carpet till today”, a source in government said.
Indeed, it is expected that at the end of the evacuation, more bodies would be recovered from the rubbles of the collapsed building in the state
