President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Professor Sadiq Abubakar, has said the arbitrary hike in cement price is directly responsible for the rising cases of building collapse in the country.
Abubakar spoke yesterday at an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Solid Minerals, Industry, Commerce and Special Duties, to probe the price increase, yesterday.
The COREN boss said the increase was responsible for lowering the standards of infrastructure in the country.
“You will agree with me that it is one of the key culprits of building collapse. I am trying to connect the hike in price of cement with the standardization in our building and the direct connection of building collapse. Clearly there is a connection with that and I think this is something we must interrogate,” he said.
The chairman of the Joint Committee, Hon Gaza Jonathan Gbwefi, summoned the chairman of the Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria over the arbitrary hike in the price of cement in the country.
The chairman of the association who did not turn up for investigative hearing yesterday was summoned after having failed to appear after two invitations, according to the committee.
The committee also charged the association to desist from using frivolous court injunctions to interfere or halt the ongoing investigation by the House.
Gbewfi said the failure of the cement manufacturers to appear before the committee was an affront to the powers of the National Assembly.
The lawmaker threatened that appropriate sanctions would be applied in accordance with the law if he failed to show up at the next hearing.
He agreed with the COREN president that the cost of cement has direct relation with building collapse, adding that it has also direct relation to increase in tenancy rates.
The joint committee also queried representatives of the Nigeria Building and Road Research Institute (NIBRID) and the Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Council (FCCPC) on the arbitrary price increase.
Gbewfi berated the representative of the chief executive officer of the FCCPC, Boladale Adeyinka for not doing enough to protect consumers of cement in line with the Act establishing the agency.
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