Tragedy struck the construction industry in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Wednesday when two high rise buildings caved in amidst ongoing construction.
Key highlight:
- Two high-rise buildings under construction collapsed in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, including a three-storey building along Iwofe Road and a four-storey structure on Peter Odili Road.
- While no deaths were recorded in the Iwofe incident, the collapse at Peter Odili Road has claimed at least one life, with the condition of other victims taken to hospital still uncertain.
- Rivers State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Amairigha Edward Hart, attributed recurring building collapses to poor supervision, use of substandard materials, and deviation from approved building plans.
- Siminalayi Fubara ordered the complete sealing of the collapsed five-storey building site pending a full investigation into the cause of the disaster.
- Governor Fubara alleged that the developer had previously resisted government inspections and failed to comply with building regulations, stressing that the tragedy could have been avoided.
The buildings, one a three storey along Iwofe Road in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, and the other, a four storey at Peter Odili Road in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area all in the heart of the state capital.
In 2018, a similar incident happened at the Old Government Reservation Area, GRA, Port Harcourt when a seven storey building under construction collapsed and trapped dozens of artisans working at the site.
It took days and combined rescue efforts of the state government, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC,Shell Petroleum Development Company,SPDC, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA and other companies and organizations to clear the rubble to bring out corpses of victims trapped in the building.
The current Federal Capital Territory, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike was the governor of the state then and he threatened fire and brimstone against the developers of the collapsed building just as he vowed to put measures in place to check a repeat of the factors responsible for the collapse.
However after the bereaved buried their dead and the injured nursed their injuries, the state returned to normal life. Nothing was heard about a legislation by the House of Assembly or other relevant agency of government prescribing stricter sanctions against developers who violate building regulations.
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In 2024, the state government sealed a hotel project belonging to an ally of the FCT Minister, Samuel Nwanosike for violating the approved structure by the State Town Planning and Urban Development Authority.
The state government had threatened to bring down the building for exceeding the number of floors approved for the building. The stand off between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and the FCT Minister was then at its peak and being that the culprit in the case was the minister’s ally, the matter threw up a lot of dust in the state. At the end of the day, the matter was ‘ politically resolved’.
The incident of Wednesday is a sad reminder that a rotten tooth is still in the mouth and until it is pulled out, the mouth must continue to chew with caution.
For now, no official report on the two collapsed buildings has been released to show what actually caused the collapse, but residents around the one at Iwofe said that the building did not show any sign that it would collapse, until on Monday, when workers started hearing sounds of cracks from the second or third floor, which made them evacuate the site before it finally collapsed on Wednesday.
The Rivers State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Hon. Amairigha Edward Hart, who visited the site, vowed to apply stricter structural integrity and safety across all construction sites in the state.
The commissioner, who was accompanied by a team from the ministry to visit the collapsed building site, warned that developers and builders must comply with approved building plans or face penalties.
Hart described the incident as unfortunate and a major issue within the building sector, warning builders and developers against the use of substandard materials.
He added, “What I have come to realise is that these things keep recurring. It is either a result of incompetent supervision of structural work, the use of substandard materials on site, or situations where building owners go outside their approved plans.
“For instance, where approval is granted for a two or three-storey building, some developers proceed to construct up to five storeys. We have seen this happen in several cases.”
He identified negligence by developers and property owners as a major contributor to structural failures across the state, noting that sometimes builders deviate from approved building plans.
Hart also identified the major causes of building collapse as incompetent structural development, poor engineering supervision and execution during construction, as well as the use of substandard building materials.
But while there were no fatalities in the Iwofe incident, the PeterOdili incident has so far claimed one life, while the fate of victims taken to the hospital remains uncertain.
The identity of the owners of the structures has yet to be established, but if they are politically exposed persons, the matter would most likely be swept under the carpet.
Meanwhile, Governor Siminalayi Fubara has ordered a complete seal off of the site of the five- storey building.
Governor Fubara, who visited the site of the disaster on Thursday to assess the situation, said the site will remain “completely sealed off” until the government gets to the “root cause” of the incident.
He described the incident as unfortunate but observed that preliminary investigation had shown that the developer had earlier refused to subject his site to inspection by the state authorities and comply with the necessary building regulations.
The Governor, who inspected the site alongside the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Sir Amairigha Edward Hart, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Special Duties, Dabite Sokari George, explained that he couldn’t visit the site the previous day because he was awaiting formal briefing from the relevant agency of government on the situation.
“We’re here to see for ourselves the very unfortunate incident that took place here. I didn’t come yesterday because I wanted to get the report first, and the Commissioner did brief me that the incident site, first, is not as claimed by the developer, that it’s not under the jurisdiction of the state; that it’s under the jurisdiction of the Federal Housing Authority.
“He also informed me that when the project was ongoing, they came here severally to inspect what was happening and also to see the level of compliance. But unfortunately, that the developer kept claiming that we don’t have any right to interfere,” he said.
Governor Fubara said that the issue was no longer about interference but about the life lost to the building collapse and the collateral damage brought upon the family of the deceased. He extended condolences to the families of the victims, insisting that the incident could have been avoided if the developer had complied with the rules guiding the engineering design and construction of such a structure in the 21st century.
“We feel very sorry and very regretful that such an incident should be happening in this 21st century. 21st century because technology has advanced, engineering has developed. I wonder what kind of engineer would even allow this kind of project to go on when everything about it from inception has been faulty.
“I think that at this point,nothing is going to happen on this site any more. We are going to make sure that this place is completely sealed off until we get to the root cause of this incident,” Governor Fubara stated.
