Police Quiz Pastor Over Church Building Collapse

Members of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Rivers State Chapter protesting the abduction of the Chibok Secondary School girls in Port Harcourt, yesterday. Photo: Ibioye Diama

The last may not have been heard from the collapsed church building last Monday at Agudama-Epie,  Bayelsa State in which more than 50 persons were said to have cheated death.
The church which goes by the name National Apostolic Church of Nigeria, constructed with Cameroun zinc, galvanised rods, pillars, sticks coated with cement, caved on Monday due to ravaging heavy rain storm that hit area.
Eight people were said to be lying critically ill in the different hospitals in Yenagoa  while 20  had various degrees of injuries as a church building collapsed during the downpour.
The incident rattled government officials causing the state Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (rtd) , Commissioner of Police, Mr Hillary Okpara,   officials of National Emergency Management Agency, state Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, Lawrence Ewudjiakpor, the Commandant of Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, among others, to rush to the site for rescue operations.
Speaking to journalists later, Okpara said the pastor of the church had been invited for interview as police continue their investigations on the incident.
Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, Lawrence Ewudjiakpor, said the state government will offset the bills of those wounded and  blamed substandard materials and structural defects for the incident.
He said the state Capital City Development Authority would be strengthened through the provision of manpower and equipment to carry out effective supervision of building projects by individuals and corporate organisations within the state capital.
He said, the state government would reprimand the founder of the church over the incident and attributed poor supervision of buildings in the state to shortage of manpower in the Capital City Development Authority (CCDA).
A witness, Tonye Beregha, had told journalists that the building belonged to the National Apostolic Church of Nigeria.
“We heard a loud sound which we thought was that of thunder. But we later heard that the uncompleted building had collapsed, trapping many people under the rubbles,” Beregha said.
He said the downpour also destroyed roofs of many buildings in the state capital and felled some street lights on Sani Abacha expressway, causing heavy traffic gridlock in the area.