Abuja metropolitan council to investigate building collapse

The Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC) says it will launch an investigation to find out the cause of a building collapse in the Jabi area of the state.

Umar Shuaibu, coordinator, AMMC, made the disclosure while briefing journalists at the site of the incident on Saturday.

The collapse of the building, a three-storey shopping complex under construction, led to the death of one person.

According to Shuaibu, apart from the one death recorded, six of the 12 persons trapped had been rescued.

He warned “scavengers”  to keep off the site of the incident and said preventive measures will be put in place to avoid a re-occurrence.

“This is an accident. What happened is an unfortunate incidence. We have this kind of building collapse occurrence all over the world, not only in Nigeria,” he said.

“We are going to start our investigations now; we are going to take adequate measures to prevent any future occurrence.

“We have passed the first phase, the next phase is evacuating these rubbles and we implore the general public not to be here.

“There are so many scavengers around, so we are going to instruct security agencies that anybody they catch around this area should be arrested.”

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has announced an end to the search and rescue operations at the scene of the incident.

Mustapha Maihaja, director general, NEMA, said there were no bodies left buried under the ruins of the building.

The NEMA DG said emergency responders and trained professionals were deployed to ensure the search and rescue operation went smoothly.

“The incidence happened unannounced, the FCT Emergency Management Agency that is responsible responded promptly,” he said.

“All other stakeholders brought their support to assist them and a good work has been done to rescue those that were trapped.

“It is an uncompleted building that was abandoned for a long time and I was made to understand that there were no people living there, only the illegal occupants were there.

“Seven people were brought out, one was certified dead, one severely wounded among those injured.

“This is a professional job, professionals were deployed here. They professionally combed the whole site and they could not find any other than what they were able to get.”