From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
There was serious pandemonium at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja as staff, visitors, journalists and security personnel scampered for safety over fears that the building was trembling and attempting to collapse.
The secretariat which witnessed beehive of activities since early hours of Thursday however became a shadow of itself temporarily after the incident as many of the staff became afraid of returning to their duty post for fear of the building collapsing on them.
Some of the staff who spoke to Daily Sun claimed that some national leadership of the party had earlier before the incident that occurred around 5.10pm, hurriedly left the building when the trembling persisted for minutes on end.
The incident happened after the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Committee took ownership of the edifice after several years of paying rent to widow and renaming the building with Muhammadu Buhari House just last week.
Narrating their experience, a staff told Daily Sun that: “We learnt that the shaking and do I call it trembling was more noticeable at the last floor of the three story building. We just saw everybody running for safety and we had to join them in running out of the building.
“Those up actually felt the building shaking, forcing every staff to scamper for safety. The situation was surprising because we did not notice it before now until this evening. We had to leave the building because it was the first safety measure to undertake,” he said.
Although the situation became very calm after few minutes, many of the secretariat staff including journalists refused to return to the building for fear of collapse.
One of the members of staff that ran helter-skelter also pleaded with the national leadership of the party to subject the building to integrity test to avoid collapse, warning that the building is looking unsafe.
“The truth is that nobody is comfortable staying in the building with what happened today. We felt the building shaking seriously. It was even the Secretary that first left the secretariat because it was more obvious from his office. Now that the National officers are involved, all I can appeal to them is to subject the building to integrity test,” he pleaded.