No fewer than six persons narrowly escaped death weekend when an Event Centre building collapsed in Ijero Ekiti, Ijero local government area of Ekiti state.
The building christened F and G Event Centre, located along Ijero-Ido Ekiti road, with over 250 occupants, while being used as a reception venue for a burial ceremony around 4pm, calved in which led to many sustaining bodily wounds as victims scampered out of the rubbles for safety.
Apart from the wreckage, the building auditorium and surroundings were littered with assorted food, broken bottles, shoes, male caps, female wigs and headgears.
While expressing deep sympathy over the ugly development and the high degree of injuries sustained by the six persons who got wounded, the governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, represented by his deputy, Chief Monisade Afuye, who visited the site of the building collapse at Ijero General Hospital, where some victims received treatments, Sunday morning, grieved over the incident, saying he personally deemed the accident as very disturbing and saddening.
Addressing the sympathisers, Oyebanji directed all the agencies of government to ensure that all the public buildings of that nature are supervised and certified at every stage to avoid unwarranted fatalities.
The governor said the incident could have been averted, if proper building compliance with specifications were carried out by government agencies. He warned that situations like that shouldn’t be allowed to reoccur in the state.
Oyebanji assured that his government will map out strategies to make emergency management equipment available in all the local governments to respond to any alarming situation.
“Let me sympathise with the victims of this devastating incident. Nobody prays for bad thing to happen, but we need to be proactive in preventing occurrences of this nature, rather than being retroactive.
“I know that if the building had been thoroughly supervised and certified fit at every stage of the erection, this incident could have been averted.”
