NEMA okays collapse Ogun market complex land for reconstruction
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NIGERIA: FROM the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has come a clean bill of health on the soil where the collapsed multi-million naira Itoku Market complex in Ogun State was built.
The agency has declared that the expanse of land was good enough for construction of skyscrapers, and if the government of Senator Ibikunle Amosun is still interested in reconstructing the collapse shopping complex it could do so on the land.
The four-storey complex under construction crashed last Friday and killed one person, while scores of others were injured, just as the government declared that it would institute a panel to unravel the cause of the collapse.
The South-West Coordinator of NEMA, Yakubu Sulaiman, gave the verdict on Monday at the site of the crash while supervising the demolition of the remaining part of the collapsed building.
Sulaiman stressed that despite the collapse, the land is fit and government can begin reconstruction after the demolition of the remaining part of the building.
He said: “After the demolition of the entire structure, the building can still be erected on the same spot of the collapsed one.
“Go to anywhere in the world gigantic buildings are being mounted on oceans; it can still be constructed if the appropriate thing is done before the construction, it is just a minor issue.”
To avoid recurrence, Sulaiman said that “the state government has enough qualified hands to take a decision on that; that is beyond my area of jurisdiction.”
He explained that the twin section of the building needed to be demolished for psychological reasons.
“We advised that for psychological reasons the building should be demolished and the governor took to our advice; as you are aware NEMA is the only agency coordinating the entire exercise and the governor is aware of our experience in this regards,” the NEMA chief said.
Sulaiman, however, refused to go into details on why the building collapsed, as, according to him, investigation was still on going.
His words: “I don’t want to go into the root cause of the collapse, investigation is still ongoing and that is why we advised that we should adopt a controlled method of demolition instead of using a scientific way that would involve blasting by way of dynamite which will vibrate to the entire environment and there will be shock everywhere and panic.”
“That environment has been cordoned off about 200 metres to the North, to the South to the East and West for safety reasons, we want everybody’s lives and properties to be secured in this environment and hopefully by tomorrow the exercise should be rounded off,” Sulaiman said.
