Worried by the incessant building collapse in the state and the danger it poses to the lives of the people, the Rivers State government has resolved to set up a taskforce to check the menace.
The state’s Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Rt. Hon. Evans Bipi disclosed this during an on-the-spot inspection of a 3-storey building the collapsed under construction in the Abacha Road axis of GRA, Port-Harcourt.
However, no life was lost in the latest building collapse which occurred on Friday November 8, 2024.
The latest collapse comes barely four days after a similar incident occurred in Ogbogoro Community of Obio-Akpor local government area which claimed one life and severely injured two other persons.
Bipi said the taskforce would monitor all development sites in the state to ensure that developers strictly comply with the building laws and regulations of the state to prevent further building collapse.
He accused the developer of gross violation of the government-approved building plan by using substandard materials to raise a 3-storey building in a waterlogged area.
The commissioner also threatened tougher penalties against defaulters of the Physical Planning Development Law of the state to serve as deterrent.
Bipi explained that by enforcing severe penalties, the government aims to promote adherence to the law and prevent further building collapse in the state.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Samuel Eyiba, who accompanied Bipi on the inspection, said the state government may consider enacting a legal framework that would seek to imprison defaulting engineers with an option of heavy fine.
Eyiba said this would deter both engineers and developers from cutting corners or using substandard materials and endangering the lives of innocent construction workers.
For his part, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Surveyor Wisdom Hebron decried the use substandard materials by developers which is responsible for the spate of building collapse in the state.
