Professional Bodies Blame Collapsed Building On Quackery

Some professional bodies in building construction have attributed the collapse of the seven storey building in Port Harcourt recently to the use of inexperienced professionals to handle the construction of the collapsed building.
This was the position expressed by leadership of Nigeria Institute of Architecture, Nigeria institute of building as well as Town Planners Council of Nigeria who made separate presentations to the Commission of Inquiry charged with the responsibility of investigating the remote and immediate cause of the collapsed seven storey building on the resumed hearing after new year break in Port Harcourt, taking the lead on the witness box Tamunoene Abam-Kingdom who is the President of Nigeria Association for Engineering, Geology and Environment in his submissions presented a memorandum to the commission which included all his Associations submission.
Reading out the memorandum on behalf of his Association, Abam-Kingdom said the collapse would have been totally avoidable if the right Geo-technical test was done and strictly adhered to just as he denied any link to the collapsed building.
On his part, a member of Nigeria Institution of Surveyors, Professor King Nyenke, who doubles as a lecturer at the Department of Quantity Surveyor, Rivers State University insisted that the building collapse was caused by compromise and poor quality materials used by the owner and the team that carried out the construction work.
Professor Nyenke who raised a nine questions to the commission to determined whether the right and qualified engineers were engaged for the construction, urged the commission to ensure that the law takes it course.
In his own witness, the Chairman, Nigeria Institution of Architecture, Rivers State Chapter, Architect Asumbe Egbuonu, during a cross examination identified the Architect who handled the collapsed building as a trainee who lacked the required professional skill to handle such huge building.
Architect Egbuonu, however, faulted the claims that the design of the collapsed building was seven storey, noting that addition of the pilling floor and basement makes the building nine floors.
The architect called on building developers to always consider involving professionals in their project which he said would help save lives and property.
Also, a representative of Nigeria Town Planners Registration Council in Rivers State, Professor Opuenebo Binya-Owei attributed the cause of the collapse to non- implementation and enforcement of Town Planners Law which she said, would help to marshal out an administrative frame work in terms of development.

Akujobi Amadi