AfriqueCAN:
A report by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild – BCPG, says Nigeria has experienced 135 building collapse incidents and at least 26 deaths between 2022 and 2024, with the most recent incident occurring in Kubwa, a suburb in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,
According to the guild, as of 2024, there have been 17 recorded building collapse cases, with Lagos having five, Anambra having three, and Kano, Niger, and Plateau having one each.
The organisation revealed that professional ineptitude, including excessive loading, use of substandard materials, faulty design, poor workmanship, and weak foundation, contributed significantly to the collapses.
Chairman of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, Dr Samson Opaluwah, blamed government negligence in enforcing laws and regulations and demanded thorough investigations and punishment of culprits.
“This collapse, unfortunately, has continued to happen, especially in areas that we can refer to as urban centres. Centres where professionals and professionalism should be extolled to the highest,’’ he said.
“The challenge we have now is government enforcement of its laws. We need to punish those who have been found wanting in the past.
“In all the published reports and investigations done by the FCT, we have not seen any advertised punishment to those found wanting.”
He insisted that until measures were put in place to punish offenders, the situation would remain the same.
“Every building that collapses has a reason why it collapsed. And if the reason is human error, that error has to be addressed. If it was due to negligence, poor conduct, or misbehaviour, then there should be punishments and sanctions. And that is what we stand for as a council. We stand for punishing culpable individuals,” he stated.
