The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), yesterday, vowed to revoke the licence and building approval granted to the developers of the three-storey hotel building under construction, which collapsed in Life Camp Dape District, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Permanent Secretary of FCTA, Olusade Adesola, who led other management staff of the Administration, said that the building under construction was approved as three and not six-storey as peddled in some sections of the media. He also noted that the building was still on its first suspended floor, going to the second floor before the unfortunate incident.
“From the report making the rounds that a six-storey building collapsed in Abuja, it is not a six-storey building, but a property that is at the first suspended floor going to the second suspended floor.
“The building was approved for a three-storey building, so we should not sensationalise the misfortune of others.” Also, Director, Department of Development Control, Muktar Galadima, disclosed that the developers contravened several building codes and also violated the building approval given to them.
Galadima also noted that after due diligence investigation, both the developers and staff who are found culpable would be prosecuted in accordance with extant laws.
The Federal Fire Service had on Monday said rescue operations at the site of the collapsed building at Dape in Life Camp, Abuja, would resume yesterday at about 8:00 a.m.
A Superintendent of Fire Service, Emeribe David, had told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the scene of the disaster, that all the agencies involved agreed to resume the rescue operation on Tuesday morning.
David, who led the team of firemen to the site, said that the Fire Service received a distress call at about 4:00p.m. and reached the site about 15 minutes later.
He said that his team joined other agencies in the operations to save the lives of the people trapped in the wreckage. He identified some of the agencies as the FCT Emergency Management Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps, National Emergency Management Agency, Nigeria Police Force, among others.
“Immediately the Fire Service received the call, we were deployed to the scene with a fire truck and ambulance crew to see what we could salvage.
“We do not know the number of people that were trapped, but we will figure that out when we continue the operations in the morning,” he said. Earlier, the Director-General of FEMA, Dr. Abass Idris, told newsmen that nine persons have so far been rescued as of 7:44p.m.
READ ALSO:http://www.africahousingnews.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=127082&action=edit
Source: guardian.ng
