Friday 4 October 2013

Scores escape death as varsity lecture theatre collapses in Bayelsa

Providence averted what could have been the
tragic end of some persons when an ongoing
lecture theatre building collapsed at the
permanent site of the Bayelsa owned Niger
Delta University, Amassoma in Southern Ijaw local government area of the state. Though no life was reportedly lost, a site
supervisor was critically injured. It was learnt, Friday, that the collapsed of the
building was due to the alleged use of
substandard materials. A source told Saturday Vanguard that the site
engineer did not comply with standard
procedure in the use of materials. He said,”instead of using eight pans of sand
and 12 pans of chipping, 15 pans of sand was
used. ” 16mm suppose to be used for the first
decking but 12 mm iron rods were used while
the pillars were not well cast from the DPC.” A squatter who escaped death by the whiskers,
Madam Oyitari, said she heared a loud bang at
about noon on Thursday while drying her cloths
under the building. “I started seeing blocks falling on me, I started
moving backward in fear, as if I was dreaming. I
later heard loud sound and saw the building
down. The blocks hit a part of my arm. I thank
God the whole building did not fall on me and
no body was inside it, except only one person was on the top floor doing something , he did
not die but in a critical state,” she said. Members of the Nigeria Institute of Architects
(NIA) who visited the scene of the collapse
building blamed the cause on the use of quack
engineers and announced its decision to set up
a high powered committee to investigate the
incident. Leading the team of Architects, the State
Chairman of the NIS, Stella Raine, said though a
high powered committee has been set up to
investigate the incident, the NIA have always
warned against the use of quacks at
construction sites in the state. “It has been a campaign we have continuously
carried out, and we want to emphasize that
competent hands are used and strict
supervision is carried out on projects,” she
said. A staff who pleaded anonymity said the project
monitoring team of the institution had noticed
defects of the building and were in the process
of rectifying it when the it collapsed.

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