A family of six in the late hours of Wednesday, 2nd May 2021, escaped death as a two-storey building collapsed in Anambra state.
The incident as reported by ABS, happened at Amawbia bypass, Awka South Local Government Area of the state.
The two-storey building which is said to be owned by an Engineer, entirely collapsed onto a neighbouring residential building and a shop.
Among the family of six trapped, four sustained minor injuries, and two were seriously injured and hospitalized.
Properties and goods worth over a million naira were lost to the incident.
According to the head of the family trapped by the collapsed building, Mr Augustine Ikeji who thanked God for saving his family especially his two-year-old daughter who was totally covered by the collapsed building walls, the incident occurred around 11pm yesterday night.
He called on both government and private individuals to come to his aid to save his hospitalized wife and daughter, and replace some of his property that was destroyed.
On her part, the landlady of the affected neighbouring residential building, Mrs Amaka Okonkwo who is a widow with about five children, attributed the incident to the use of substandard materials by the owner of the collapsed two-storey building, explaining that the building started to give signs of collapse before the completion during which some of the pillars collapsed, and called on the government and other relevant authorities to assist her in rebuilding her house which she said is her only source livelihood.
For a tenant of the affected neighbouring building, Lady Ogechukwu Ndu, and a shop owner whose goods were trapped by the collapsed building, Mr Sunday Nwaezi frowned at the action of the collapsed building owner, who they said fled on hearing about the incident without even asking after the condition of the trapped family, and appealed to the state government to take action against him to serve as a deterrent to other substandard builders.
Speaking during his visit to the scene of the incident, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Awka Capital Territory Development Authority, ACTDA, Venerable Amaechi Okwuosa while describing the incident as unfortunate, pointed out that the building was built without adequate approval from ASUDEB, an agency that was in charge of issuing building approvals to developers during the erection of the building about ten years ago. He said that the land of the collapsed building now belongs to the Anambra state government as contained in relevant sections of the state laws on building collapse.
Venerable Okwuosa cautioned developers in the state against cutting corners in the acquisition of building approvals, as the agency will not spare any more found guilty of any developmental laws in the state.