Building collapse avoidable, Fashola wants offenders punished
In the quest to put an end to the incessant building collapse in the country, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has called for investigation and prosecution of offenders of building collapse in Nigeria, saying that incidence of building collapse is totally avoidable.
Fashola made the call when the National Building Code Advisory Committee paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
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Identifying factors such as design, materials and compliance to specifications as possible causes for building collapse in Nigeria, he maintained that defective building code was never the reason behind such unfortunate occurrence.
“I find it difficult to say that the absence or presence of the National Building Code is the major cause, I beg to disagree. A lot of things like the design, the materials and compliance are also involved,” he explained.
He therefore, advocated for investigation of every incidence of building collapse and prosecution of those found guilty of wrong doing.
“It is not an issue of having a building code, it is important that the code is used effectively, people must comply with the building design and the materials specified to be used,” he stated.
The minister pointed out that it is important to go back to some of the previous investigations and reports on building collapse to see what went wrong and bring the culprits to book.
“Let us find one person who was found to have acted wrongly whether in the materials, the design or in the compliance stages. Find that one person; let us refer him to the office of the attorney-general of the federation for prosecution,” Fashola said.
On advocacy, the minister advised the advisory body to carry along the state governments, ministries of education and students to imbibe safety standards in building houses.
Fashola commended the advisory body’s plan of setting standards for gas piping to homes, adding that that would meet the economic and energy needs of Nigerians.
Earlier, Chairman of the advisory committee, Mohammed Faworaja told the minister that the since its inauguration on July 26, 2018, the committee has commenced activities such as on the draft guidelines on gas piping to buildings and monitoring of new developments with regards to policies, programmes and happenings as they concern building construction nationwide.
“This will keep members conversant with recent building activities within Nigeria and at the international level to facilitate quality contributions in the discharge of our assignment.” he said.
