Tears as two-Storey building collapse in Amawbia, Anambra state, victims count losses.
Few days ago, Wednesday, June 2nd 2021 precisely, in the early hours of the day, a two-storey building collapsed in Amawbia, a bustling town in the Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra state. The collapsed building fell on other buildings which housed tenants in residents and businesses.
Amongst the tenants in the building on which the collapsed building fell, a family of six escaped death by the whiskers as the two-storey building collapsed at Amawbia bypass, a popular place in the Awka South Local Government Area town of Amawbia.
When Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS) and other news agencies arrived at the scene of the incident, it was observed that the two-storey building which is said to be owned by an Engineer, entirely collapsed onto a neighbouring residential building and a shop.
De Erudite Media gathered that among the six members of the trapped family, four sustained minor injuries, and two were seriously injured and Hospitalised.
According to the observation of our source, properties and goods worth over a million naira were lost to the incident.
The head of the family trapped by the collapsed building, Mr Augustine Ikeji thanked God for saving his family especially his two year old daughter who was totally covered by the collapsed building walls. He stated that the incident occurred around 11pm on Wednesday night.
He went further to call on both government and private individuals to come to his aid to save his hospitalised 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 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.
The tenants from 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, saying that the land of the collapsed building now belongs to 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 acquisition of building approvals and in the use of standard materials for building, as the agency will not spare any one found guilty of breech of any developmental laws in the state.