The collapsed building has passed the lintel level before it went down after a heavy downpour at the weekend. When our correspondent visited the scene late Sunday evening, gates of the building were under lock and key, but peeping through the gates, the debris and rubbles of the collapsed building were still untouched as onlookers from within and outside the neigbourhood were coming to see the extent of the damage. Residents expressed surprise over collapse of the building which they said was almost at the stage of completion.
According to some of the students living within the vicinity, who witnessed the collapse, the building collapsed just immediately after workers left the site, having finished the day's work.
According to them, some students who came to the site to check when the building would be completed so as to pay for rent in advance left the site when it was about to rain and the unfortunate incident happened.
One of the eye witnesses said; ''we rushed out when we heard a thunderous noise, and we saw the twostorey building already collapsed to its foundation.
"This is the house where people had worked the previous day and more than six of the workers usually sleep there at night. "In fact, one of them, who was having his rest in the building, was called on phone by a friend minutes before the building collapsed," the witness said.
He thanked God that nobody was inside the house when it collapsed, even as he was excited that the incident did not affect nearby houses. All efforts to reach the owner of the collapsed building proved abortive as he was said to have traveled abroad, leaving the project in the hands of the contractor, who was said to be on the run.
The Site Engineer, who was sighted few hours before the building collapsed, was said to have fled, fearing that the villagers might attack him. Some of the people in the neighbourhood attributed the collapse to low quality materials and poor job by the contractor.
Source: National Mirror
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