Collapsed building kills one in Abuja

* 10 persons still trapped, rescue efforts ongoing
Tragedy struck in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Friday as about 10 persons including, women and children were feared trapped under a building which collapsed.

Unconfirmed reports said that one person died when the four-storey building under construction collapsed on the workers and food sellers at the Jabi area of the city.

It was gathered that the building had been abandoned for over 15 years by the owner who recently mobilized workers to continue the construction of the structure.

Officials of the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority later arrived at the scene to commence the rescue of the trapped victims.

But the heavy rain was said to have also hampered rescue operations, coupled with the late response emergency workers to the disaster site and the unavailability of the specialized equipment to carry out rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, rescue officials were said to have rescued about six persons while a corpse has been evacuated.

In a related development, officials of the FCT have threatened to henceforth, demolish all uncompleted and abandoned buildings in the territory in the interest of public safety.

As at the time of this report, construction giant, Julius Berger and other construction firms have rushed equipment to the site of the collapsed building to complement rescue efforts.

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and the FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, accompanied by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, also visited the scene of the disaster with both men giving assurances that efforts are being put in place to prevent recurrence.

In a related development, experts at the scene of the incident have blamed the use of poor building materials for the collapse of the structure.

The Daily Times recalls that Abuja recorded a high rate of building collapse in 2016, which were majorly as a result of poor quality building materials used in constructing such buildings and the supervision of affected structures by unqualified building engineers.