Governor Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi state weekend called on the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Institute of Building and other regulatory bodies to investigate the cause of collapse students accodation at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Ikwo, Ikwo local government area of the state.
A section of a 3 story building (Pentagon lodge) housing hundreds of students of AE-FUNAI collapsed on Friday.
Following the urgly event, the governor said the integrity of building regulatory bodies was at stake if they fail to tackle the root cause of the building collapse.
Nwifuru in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary Monday Uzor said, “It is disheartening to learn about building collapse in this era when we have skilled manpower and well established professional standards,” he said.
” I have directed the Ministry of Capital City Development to ensure any developer wishing to embark on building projects must get approval. Lives of our people are precious and cannot be compromised under any guise.”
“The Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Institute of Building and other regulatory agencies should note that their integrity is at stake. Therefore, I urge them to ensure that building collapse becomes a thing of the past in this country”
He assured that after the investigation , any one found culpable in the incident will be made to face the law and advised developers to always engage professionals in the execution of their building projects.
Relatively, the Vice-Chancellor of Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike, Professor Sunday Elom, in a statement by the Public Relation officer of the institution,Iyke Ubochi, called for enforcement of standard construction to ensure that buildings are properly designed and constructed to avoid indiscriminate collapse, which may lead to injury or loss lives and property.
Elom was quoted to have lamented the manner private buildings are constructed without proper, supervision, monitoring and enforcement of building codes by relevant agencies, warning that if not checked , it may lead to further avoidable disasters.
He therefore called on the Ebonyi state government to institute a full investigation into the hostel collapse to ascertain the probable causes of the collapse in order to punish anyone found culpable, and to serve as deterrent to corrupt regulators, contractors, engineers and others who may have cut corners, leading to the disaster.