Collapse building owner on-the-run after 5 deaths

A yet-to-be identified owner of the collapsed two storey building that resulted in five fatalities and injured five other persons in Lagos State, is at large, raising concerns among residents of the area.

The victims were workers at the construction site, Emergency Responders who rescued five injured persons from the rubble from ground zero to hospital for urgent Medical attention said.

Briefing the Media at the collapsed building site, the Director of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Mr Olatunde Akinsaya, confirmed the the number of casualties in the incident that occured in Wilson MBA street at Owojobi Estate, Maryland, Lagos State.

Akinsaya, wondered why the developer went missing after the incident that occured in the early hours of Thursday July 25th 2024.

He said, “sadly, no one has come forward to say he or she owns the building. We are still appealing to the owner to please come forward because you can’t at this moment be at large”.

Commenting on the incident, a former President of Association of Nigeria Society of Engineers, bemoaned the proliferation of substandard building materials and lack of laboratories to run integrity test for building materials in Nigeria.

She accused the standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) of failing to regulate Building materials, which she stated account for several building collapse in some parts of the Country in recent times.

The resident said, “SON is not doing its job. When you lock up few manufacturers of substandard building materials, it will bring back sanity to the Country”.

She alleged that, “You want to buy 2 by 2 inches rod in the market, you will get 1 by 1\2 inch rod. Today, there is hardly anything that is up to standard. So, where do we go?

“And then, the problem is, you don’t even have enough laboratories where you can go and test for standard. It’s not really easy. Yes, it’s the duty of Engineers to confirm.

“But, the onus is on the standard Organization of Nigeria to ensure that the building materials that are being sold in our markets are up to the required quality”, she said.