OLADIMEJI RAMON,
This was an unusual scene in Ikoyi, a posh Lagos neighbourhood, reputed for its serenity. But it was the third day of tense emergency operations after a 21-storey building under construction caved in on November 1. The fallen edifice was one, and the tallest, of a set of three breathtaking high-rises, named 360 Degrees Towers, being constructed by Fourscore Heights Limited.
Every now and then, hope gave way to despair and pent-up anxiety. By a week later when the search operation came to an end, death toll had hit 46, including the owner of the building, Femi Osibona, his personal assistant, Oyinye Enekwe, and his United States-bound friend, Wale Bob-Oseni. The use of substandard building material, they explained, is driven by developers/ contractors’ desperation to cut costs at the expense of safety. This, according to experts, accounts for majority of the cases of building collapse in the country.A former President of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Mr Kunle Awobodu, described the Ikoyi incident as “the mightiest building collapse in Nigeria’s history.
The project was said to be 80 per cent ready and 65 per cent of the apartments, offered for between $500,000 and $3m , were already subscribed when the skyscraper crumbled. And Osibona’s dream was even beyond 360 Degrees Towers. Soon after the 21-storey high-rise crashed, the site attracted the interest of experts in the building construction industry.
Ajayi said, “From what we have seen here, from the signboard, we did not see the name of the architect or the engineer. I am not trying to preempt the panel, but as an architect and President of ARCON, there should be a well organised system where people will have their place in the industry.”, the current President of the BCPG, Mr George Akinola, said, “The law says you must put a board there that shows the professionals involved in the building or the construction going on.
“We request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project,” the structural engineer said.
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