Fubara seals site of collapsed building, orders probe

Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, has sealed off the site of the five-storey building that collapsed on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, killing one person and injuring several others.

Onwuka Nzeshi, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, said in a release on Thursday that Fubara also ordered a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collapse.

The governor, who visited the site on Thursday to assess the situation, said the site would remain “completely sealed off” until the government got to the “root cause” of the incident.

He described the incident as unfortunate but observed that preliminary investigations had shown that the developer had earlier refused to submit his site for inspection by the state authorities and comply with the necessary building regulations.

Fubara, who inspected the site alongside Amairigha Edward Hart, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, and Dabite Sokari George, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Special Duties, explained that he could not visit the site the previous day because he was awaiting a formal briefing from the relevant government agency on the situation.

“We’re here to see for ourselves the very unfortunate incident that took place here. I didn’t come yesterday because I wanted to get the report first, and the commissioner briefed me that the incident site, first, is not as claimed by the developer; and that it is not under the jurisdiction of the state, but under the jurisdiction of the Federal Housing Authority.”

“He also informed me that when the project was ongoing, they came here several times to inspect what was happening and to see the level of compliance. But unfortunately, the developer kept claiming that we did not have any right to interfere,” he said.

The governor said the issue was no longer about interference but about the life lost in the building collapse and the collateral damage caused to the family of the deceased. He extended condolences to the families of the victims, insisting that the incident could have been avoided if the developer had complied with the rules guiding the engineering design and construction of such a structure in the 21st century.

“We feel very sorry and very regretful that such an incident should be happening in the 21st century. It is the 21st century, and technology has advanced and engineering has developed. I wonder what kind of engineer would allow this kind of project to go on when everything about it, from inception, has been faulty.

“I think that at this point, nothing is going to happen on this site anymore. We are going to make sure that this place is completely sealed off until we get to the root cause of this incident,” Fubara said.