Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Musa Bello has expressed embarrassment that despite imputes from various professionals, public buildings are still collapsing in Nigeria, with particular reference to Abuja.
“I am saddened by the incidents of building collapse in the country despite the calibre, number, and mix of professionals in the building industry in Abuja and other parts of the country.”
The minister, who today, Wednesday, received the report of the Panel of Inquiry on Jabi building collapse, vowed to restructure and overhaul the Department of Development Control of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to strengthen its institutional framework in order to enable the department cope with the ever increasing building activities.
Musa Bello, who was represented by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Chinyeaka Ohaa, said that the restructuring will ensure more efficient and functional operations by offering developers value for their money.
He said that activities of the department will also be decentralised to keep pace with the changing profile of the Territory and improve service delivery.
He hoped that the recommendations of the Committee would help to curtail the incidents of building collapse to the barest minimum, even as he appreciated the commitment and dedication of the committee in putting together the report.
Submitting the three-volume report to the minister, Chairman of the Panel and Director General/Chief Executive officer of the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Professor Danladi Matawal said that discoveries by the panel indicated that the collapse of the four-storey building in Jabi was due to poor structural and architectural pre-examination before the commencement of building in 2005.
According to him, work on the building was abandoned but recommenced in January 2018 without any proper revalidation of the building.
He called for appropriate disciplinary measures against indicted officers, even as the panel blamed the developer for unprofessional practices, especially in the commencement of work without adequate and comprehensive documents in place. It noted that there was a deficiency in the professional capability of the people charged with responsibility of supervising buildings, from start to finish.
As a means of checking quackery in the building process, the panel recommended, among other things, the use of qualified FCTA pool of site officers and engineers at building site while embarking on the postings of staff for better performance.
