The Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, has said government will bring down multi-storey buidlings in Onitsha that fall below structural standards.
The SON director general disclosed this on Thursday in Onitsha while inspecting the sites of three multi-storey buildings that collapsed in different parts of the city.
The multi-storey buildings, two of them belonging to churches, had collapsed in Onitsha in the last three weeks. Five persons were killed in one of the incidents while many other people working on the buildings were critically injured.
"Three collpases in Onitsha within a space of three weeks is an epidemic. Something must be done quickly about it," he said.
Odumodu wondered while buildings still under construction could collapse.
"They don't have any load; nobody is living in them. They don't have any property there. So, something is wrong somewhere. We need to find out.
"My recommendation is that we have to look around for the structural integrity of newly constructed buildings. There are still others that are standing that will come down. We have to avoid a major or collateral damage," he said.
He said very soon, those who built and commissioned building projects that collapse would be made to face the law.
He likened the act of using substandard materials to erect building to terrorism, which kills innocent people.
"We are in the process of putting together a new law at the National Assembly. Once that law comes out, then you can see my teeth will become like that of Dracula. And we can bite," he said.
But before then, the SON boss said his organisation and other regulatory organisations in the building industry would ensure that every multi-storey building project was strictly supervised.
"Any time we see a building that is going beyond a storey, we want to be there to know what they are doing. If supervision is not there on site, then there is a problem," he added.
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