Building collapse: Anambra Govt to demolish two defective 4 storey buildings in Onitsha
Joseph Irikefe
The Anambra State government has marked 2 four-story buildings for demolition at Amobi Street in Onitsha South Local Government Area.
This is to avert a repeat of the collapse of a two story building last month which killed over eight people and injured 26 others.
One of the buildings had its decked portion collapsed following the use poor and sub standard materials for the project.
The two buildings which are located about one foot close to each other are currently witnessing cracked pillars and weak decking, a development that led to the order for demolition.
About a month ago, the two buildings had been marked for demolition but the owners allegedly removed the demolition marks, commenced heavy business activities at the ground floor of the buildings.
It was equally observed that the contractors had already constructed another set of slabs preparatory for the decking of the fifth floor despite the demolition order.
The two contractors handling projects on getting the information that the local government council would be visiting the area fled to an unknown destination.
Speaking during the inspection of the site the Chairman of Onitsha South local government area Chief Emeka Joseph Orji expressed worries over the continued building of project, despite the order by government about a month ago.
He wondered why people will chose to risk their lives doing business under a death trap.
“The two buildings must go down in the next two days. That is the order, and remember that Gov Charles Soludo had directed that all building plans must personally get his approval before construction but these two buildings do not have the approval of the governor.”
“We must do this to save the lives of our people and also avert possible deaths and casualties that has always been the results of collapsed buildings. “
“Look at the materials that they are using and you all saw that the back of the building where the two storey have already collapsed and we used the tape to block the entrance of the two buildings but they removed it and cleaned up the marks for demolition,” he said.
According to him, the two buildings with over 800 shops have been paid for by traders before the completion of the project.
He disclosed that the shops have been sold to would be landlords before they were marked for demolition.
Recall that in the past three months three buildings had collapsed in Onitsha killing a total of eight persons at the site and the state government had to clear the debris and take over the lands in question.