Residents of Old Express, off Sameck junction by Faulks road in Aba, the commercial nerve of Abia State were yesterday thrown into mourning following the collapse of a three-storey building that killed one of its occupants.
The incident followed the collapse of another uncompleted three-storey building at Park road by East after a torrential rain that wrecked havocs in Aba and Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
Click here to watch weekly episodes of Housing Development Programme on AIT
While the incident at park road was attributed to use of inferior materials by the contractor, it was gathered that the building at Old Express collapsed into the ground as a result of persistent waterlog that weakened its foundation.
When newsmen got to the scene, efforts were still ongoing to rescue one of the trapped tenants in the rubble. The trapped resident was said to have called his relatives to inform them he was under the collapsed structure at Old Express.
Some of the workers at Park road at the time of the incident were said to have sustained minor injuries but have been taken to hospitals where they were receiving medical attention.
Some eyewitnesses disclosed that the two incidents occurred after a torrential rain that hit the city. An eyewitness at Old Express, who simply identified himself as Chima, said the deceased, a father of three, had escaped from the building but couldn’t make it after part of the fence collapsed on him.
“The owner of the building died many years ago. The people living in the house are his two wives and other tenants. We learnt that one of the landlord’s wives noticed that the house was cracking. She raised the alarm, asking their tenants to leave the building that she feared that the building was going to collapse. The man that died, from what we learnt was held back by his wife but he eventually found his way into the building after he said the money that he wanted to use for something urgent was inside.”
