Breaking: One trapped as 3 storey building collapses in Ebonyi

Two workers have been arrested following the collapse of ongoing three storey building located inside Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki,(AE-FETHA 1) belonging to Hon Olucgukwu Ukie Ezeali(P-Noble), member representing Afikpo North East in Ebonyi state House of Assembly.

This is even as one of the workers in the site is still being trapped while one person has been rescued and on admission. Addressing newsmen, the Ebonyi state Commissioner for Capital City and Urban Development, Hon Sunday Inyima described the incident as sad and explained that one of the workers has been rescued and efforts are on ground to rescue the remaining worker. While narrating cause of the collapse, the honourable Commissioner said that the structure is illegal as it did not pass the approval of the Head of Depart of the ministry, but the owner went ahead on the building of the structure. He said that the building was inside the hospital premises and blamed the lawmaker for not heeding the office directive. Adding, the state Commissioner for Works, Engr Lebechi Mbam called on developers and house owners to do well to patiently follow the due process of getting approval from the concern state ministry inorder to save lives and other havocs. The Ebonyi state Chairman, Nigeria Society of Engineers and chairman Engineers Regulation Monitoring of the Council of Engineering of Nigeria,(COREN) Engineer Eni Enyinnaya described the incident as a monumental economic loss and an embarrassment to Ebonyi state government. The state chairman who warned against quack engineers added that the professional body while on rescue mission is ongoing that necessary measures would be followed to sanction the site engineers. Meanwhile, efforts to reach the house owner, Hon Ukie Ezeali was uncessful as he did not pick his calls.