A 21-story apartment building being built in an upscale area of Nigeria’s largest city collapsed on Monday with dozens of workers feared trapped under the rubble, witnesses said.
Construction worker Eric Tetteh, 41, said construction teams were waiting for an excavator to arrive at the site when the building suddenly crumbled into a heap of debris.
“Me and my brother, we escaped, but more people are there — more than 100 people,” he told The Associated Press.
Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos, was met on his arrival at the site by angry youths who accused authorities of failing to immediately launch rescue efforts.
“For the past two hours since it collapsed nobody came here,” one angry worker shouted towards him.
Workers said the high rise, which collapsed in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, had been under construction for about two years.
It was not immediately known what caused the collapse. However, such incidents are relatively common in Lagos because enforcement of building code regulations is weak. Other observers blame shoddy work by private developers eager to meet demand for housing in the megacity.
AS Evidence That Building Owner Had Compromised Quality
The Engineering company, Prowess Engineering Limited has indicated to the owner, Mr Femi Osibona of Fourscore Heights Limited that they are withdrawing their services based on the fact that the standards that they could certify the collapsed multi-stories building, because of their inability to ensure that due diligence was performed as required.
One year and about ten months of the supervising engineering company withdrawal of services to Fourscore Heights limited, the building emphasized about collapsed.
The letter implied that the point of disagreement between the engineering company and Fourscore was based on doing things right that would ensure the integrity of the structure that failed.
The engineering company confirmed in the letter that they stand by the integrity of the multi-story building constructed before the issue of quality became apparent that led them to withdraw their services.
A source connected to the owners of the building confirmed to our reporter that about four lives were lost and several people were rescued
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