The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) through the Department of Development Control has inaugurated a 7-man committee to map out plans for the prevention of building collapse in the FCT.
The director of the Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, while inaugurating the committee, yesterday, called on members of the panel to identify and provide measures that will help in forestalling building collapse.
Galadima directed the team to look out for weak structures and recommend them for an integrity test.
“We have to be proactive, we don’t need to wait for another building to collapse before taking action. Constituting the committee will help us to investigate buildings that are not structurally stable to be used for human habitation.
“It is good to go round and identify such structures and conduct integrity test where necessary and provide for remedial measures,” he said.
He said the committee which has two months to complete its assignment, has representatives from all the professional bodies in the building sector.
The chairman of the committee and former president of the Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria, Allabel Ndirmbula, said in line with the term of reference, the committee will determine which structures in an old area of Abuja will be subjected to an integrity test.
“In phase 1 of the exercise, the committee will determine structures in old areas of Abuja, places like Wuse 1&2, Garki, and Asokoro.
“We will recommend those to be used as consultants to carry out the test, again to do any other thing that could help us prevent building collapse in Abuja.
“The committee is also saddled with the responsibility of recommending things that will work to forestall building collapse. What had happened we can’t help it, but the future is what we are looking at.
“We want to, from now forward, have a system that checks and ensures that the issue of building collapse that has been rampant is stopped,” he said.
