Abuja Tragedy: 100 Trapped In Collapsed Shopping Plaza

Abuja Tragedy: 100 trapped in collapsed shopping plaza
Vincent Egunyanga, Abuja
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A four-storey shopping complex on Tuesday in Abuja collapsed with over 100 people trapped in the debris with unconfirmed number of dead people.


The rubble of a four-storey building at Solomon Lar Way, Jabi, Abuja, which collapsed on Tuesday.
Inset: Sympathisers at the scene. 


The incident occured at about 2.00 p.m. At the time of the incident, construction workers were said to be working on some parts of the building. The building, situated at Utako district of Abuja which was housing some shops and other business outfits was allegedly overcrowded with peThe incident, recorded many casualties including women, especially those selling foods and water to workers at the complex which was on the fourth floor of the building. It was gathered that the building started experiencing some vibration on Monday following the additional work going on the fourth floor of the building but emergency reinforcement work that was quickly started to remedy the situation could not prevent the building from collapsing.



The Nigerian Tribune learnt that the workers had complained that the building was vibrating while workers and other people using the building were going in and out but the before any concrete measure could be put in place, the building caved in.



A staff of Abuja Municipal Management Agency disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune on condition of anonymity that the collapsed plaza was marked for demolition last year but their demolition sign was ignored.



He said instead of the place being sealed up nothing was done because the owner was regarded as untouchable. The former Managing Director of the agency, Miss Jumai Kwanachie, however, refused to speak on the matter. It was during her tenure that the approval for the building was given by the Federal Capital Territory administration headed by Mallam Nasir el-Rufai.



The shopping plaza which is located along Solomon Lar Way in Jabi area of Abuja started in 2007 and is nearing completion. It was equally gathered that after the collapse of the building, it took over three hours before rescue teams from the Federal Road Safety Commission, Civil Defence Corps and the Police could arrive the scene of the incident which is opposite one of the major hotels in Abuja and less than 400 metres away from the popular Julius Berger Junction and main yard of the construction firm.


http://odili.net/news/source/2008/jul/30/614.html

Stuff like this irritates me. The country needs a working engineering and building regulatory body because this case of building just collapsing is annoying. Are there any standards or codes that people are made to follow or do people just build any how they want?

Buildings do collapse and most often is due to carelessness of the people executing the project.
You may assemble all the professionals of this world to help ur project ,but when they turn their back the contractor will still do something contrary to instructions.
Is only God really can help us, many buildings also supervised by pros had also crashed before.