Ebonyi State government has directed the member representing Afikpo North East state constituency in the state House of Assembly, Hon. Oluchukwu Ukie Ezeali, to report himself to the police authorities without further delay over the collapse of a three-storey building belonging to him in Abakaliki.
The commissioner for capital city and urban development, Chief Sunday Inyima, who gave the directive at the scene of the building beside the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki FETHA 1, accused the lawmaker of erecting an illegal and unauthorised structure within the capital city.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the building suspected to be a shopping plaza collapsed on Tuesday night with two persons trapped. They were rescued alive by the Ministry of Capital City and Urban Development team.
Inyima in an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, described the incident as unfortunate, adding that the police had arrested two persons overseeing the building construction.
“What happened here is very unfortunate. I was immediately informed when the incident occurred, and I mobilised my men. We saw that the building collapsed.
“We have been able to rescue the two persons trapped inside alive. Initially, this was an illegal structure because the owner of the building came to our ministry, and the head of the department informed him that he couldn’t build on that land.
“The drawing he gave was not approved, but because this place is inside the premises of FETHA 1, our monitoring team did not observe that the building was going on.
“We expected that as an honourable member of the state House of Assembly, he should have taken caution and restricted himself from proceeding with this structure, but he defied our instructions.
“We have arrested two persons who are overseeing the site for him. And I have called the Honorable Member to report himself to the police,” he stated.
Reacting to the incident, the work commissioner, Engr Stanley Mbam, described the building collapse as a huge embarrassment to the state government.
However, he warned stakeholders, especially those building houses, to shun patronising quacks in the state, adding that the collapse of the building may have resulted from the use of nonprofessional builders.
LEADERSHIP also learned that the two labourers rescued from the collapsed building received treatment at the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki.
Hon Ezeali could not be reached for his reaction as his phones were switched off.
