Two persons dead, four rescued as building wall in Abuja collapses

The Agency also emphasised the importance of abiding by building approvals and the Abuja Master Plan.

Two persons have been confirmed dead while four individuals have been rescued at a collapsed wall in Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse II, Abuja, according to the FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

This news was confirmed by the Director-General of FEMA, Dr Abass Idriss during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.

During the interview, Idriss said: “Around between 10 a.m to 11 a.m., we received a distress call that there was a building collapse beside the United Bank for Africa Bank (UBA) at Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse II.

“We quickly activated our rescue team to go there and on getting there they saw it was a wall that fell on artisans working around the area. So far six people were removed from the rabbles and two have died while four are in the hospital at the moment.

“It is a building under construction and they have eaten into the building next to them because it is not their building that fell it is the neighbour’s building that felt on them.”

The Director-General also added that the agency had been sensitising residents on the need to abide by the Abuja Master Plan and building approvals.

He also used the opportunity to call on stakeholders tasked with granting building approvals to ensure they give proper approval, while they also monitor the constructions of these buildings.

“That is the only way to guard against the situation because the approval supposed to be in phases as you give approval in phase one, when they do according to specification you now give them approval for the second phase that is how it should be,” Idriss added.

“But if you give a blanket approval to just go and start the building they can build with whatever material they can. However, in this case like I said earlier, we are not talking about usage of inferior materials.

“It is because they extended their building and eating into the neighbourhood structure, which eventually collapsed on the artisans.”