Collapsed Fence Kills 2, Injures 4 In Abuja

A perimeter fence at a building construction site located at Wuse 2, Ademola Adetokunbo, beside UBA in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday collapsed, killing two and leaving four people critically injured.

An eye witness, who identified himself as John, said that he was passing by the construction site at about 9.30 am that morning when he heard the sound of the collapsed fence, accompanied by a loud shout from the affected workers.

According to him, he ran to the site to see what he and other people around could do to rescue those trapped in the rubble before it was too late. “We were told that about six people were trapped under the rubbles, and we rescued four people and two were not looking too good when they were brought out,” he said.

While confirming the incident, the director-general of FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Dr Idriss Abbass, revealed that all the victims were removed from the rubble of the collapsed wall.

He disclosed that FEMA received a distress call between 10 and 11 am on Wednesday, that there was a building collapse beside UBA, and drafted its rescue team to the site, on getting there, it was discovered it was a wall that fell on the artisans working around the area.

“The six people were evacuated from the debris, out of which we recorded two fatalities, and four others who sustained different degrees of injury were rushed to the hospital.

“The uncompleted building was not the one that collapsed, it was the fence of a building close to it, what happened was that they ate into the foundation of the fence of the UBA building and the wall fell on them. The cause of the collapsed fence is that the contractors ate into the foundation of the UBA fence that fell on them.

“The best we could do is to sensitise the people to know what to do and also to call on stakeholders those approving agencies, Development Control, Engineering Services to ensure that they give the proper approval and ensure that they monitor constructions going on in all allocations.

“The approval is supposed to be in phases. When you do approval in phase 1, ensure that they do according to specifications, then approve the second phase. Given blanket approval for them to just go and start building, they can build with whatever materials they like. But, in this case, we are not talking about the materials used, it is because they extended their building to eat into the neighborhood wall,” he said.

WIMIN Tackles Child Labour, Violence Against Women Miners

BY AYOBAMI OMOLE-IYAGIN, Lokoja

A women’s rights group in the solid mineral sector, Women in Mining Nigeria (WIMIN), has embarked on a two-day policy dialogue series in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital to draw attention to the plight of women in the mining sector and child labour.

The event which took place in Lokoja yesterday was tagged “Safeguarding the Rights of Women and Children in the Solid Minerals Sector.” It was aimed at building synergy and collaborations towards protecting the rights of women and children in the mining sector in the state.

The policy dialogue series, funded by the Open Society Foundation (OSF) in collaboration with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is a series of engagements that bring together relevant stakeholders in the mining, human rights, legal, security, and environmental sectors to boost interdisciplinary collaboration and engagements and find common grounds for ensuring women and children affected by the mining sector are protected.

The guest speaker, Dr Charles Adebayo Oyelami, the head of the Department of Geology at the Federal University, Oye, presented a paper titled: “Addressing Gender-based Violence and Harassment in the Solid Mineral Sector: The Role of Stakeholders”.

Oyelami said the time was right for stakeholders including the security agencies to rise against violence that is targeted against mining workers and professionals. He further advised the mining workers to speak out and report to relevant agencies anytime they fall victim of harassment or an attempted harassment.

According to the president and founder of Women in Mining Nigeria, Engr Janet Adeyemi,  the event in Kogi has put together some of the best brains in the relevant sectors to deliberate on ideas and policy initiatives to push the conversations around the plight of women and children in and around the sector. “Whether they are actively involved in mining or just resident in mining communities, women and children bear the brunt and we must seek ways to protect them,” she said.

She said, “We’re grateful to OSF for the support, and other bodies like the National Human Rights Commission who have seen the need to partner with us in order to provide a shield and succour to the most vulnerable groups in the mining sector.

“Kogi is blessed with enormous mineral resources, including coal, gemstones, iron ore, and so on. Everywhere you turn, you’ll find women subjected to all manners of hard labour in mining sites and not accorded the requisite remuneration and recognition. In many cases, they are physically, mentally, and sexually abused, and all of these engagements are to find ways to protect their rights and those of their children.”