Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Oyo State Government has summoned the site engineer in charge of the three-storey building which collapsed on workers last Friday evening, at Shogoye area of Idi-Arere, Ibadan.
Director General, Bureau of Physical Planning and Development Control in the state, Alhaji Waheed Gbadamosi, told newsmen, yesterday, that the site engineer was summoned to explain, in writing, what led to the collapse of the building.
The three-storey building collapsed at 5:34pm last Friday and all the trapped site workers were rescued alive, although, some of them who sustained varying degrees of injury have been hospitalised.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who sent a delegation led by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan, to hospitals, where the injured victims are receiving treatment, has promised to settle their hospital bills on humanitarian grounds.
Gbadamosi noted that the preliminary reports on the possible cause of the disaster revealed that standard materials were used for the construction, but “we have found out that they did not allow the curing period to lapse before they continued with the construction.
“When you do your decking, you must allow it to cure for 21 days before you start to put blocks on it. But, they did not allow that three weeks to lapse. I think they were in hurry to complete the building.
“Again, the site engineer was not professional enough to advise his client to wait. I am sure, by the time they were putting more loads on it, it definitely came down. It is like you are putting too much loads on your head, your neck will just crack and you will go down. So, that was what happened.”
Gbadamosi said if the site engineer refuses to honour the invitation, the state government will report him to his professional body, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).
“By the time we report him to COREN, the body may deregister him,” and stated further that government has always ensured that “any developer comes with his or her own engineer. The engineer will sign an undertaking with us, with COREN Stamp, to undertake the supervision of any structure from foundation till completion.