FG inaugurates inter-ministerial committee on collapsed buildings

THE Federal Government, on Tuesday, inaugurated an inter-ministerial committee on collapsed buildings as part of its commitment to find a permanent solution to the menace of collapsed buildings in the country.

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, while inaugurating the committee in Abuja, said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was determined to do everything that is humanly possible to stop building collapse because of its toll on human life.

He recalled many painful stories of building collapse, noting that no parent ever wished to have the dead body of his or her children and that the government was taking necessary steps to find a permanent solution to the recurring disaster.

Dr Onu commended the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), an agency of the ministry for its research and investigation which has helped to reduce the cases of collapsed buildings in Nigeria.

According to him, it is important that every building collapse should be investigated to secure human life and protect the environment.

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The minister then charged the committee to put the interest of the nation first in its assignment.

Representatives of all regulatory agencies in the management of construction industries were in the committee, and the committee has two weeks to submit its report.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the committee and the Acting Director-General/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NBRRI, Professor Samson Duna, noted that the impact of collapse building affected entire human fabrics, causing psychological trauma, loss of lives and properties, loss of government revenue, with victims being rendered homeless apart from suffering permanent disabilities

According to him, most of the building collapsed has been linked to man-made mistakes which can be avoided and eradicated completely. There is an urgent need to stop this ugly trend by investigating the root causes of the problems and make an appropriate recommendation.

He promised, on behalf of the committee, to get to the root causes of the problems and proffer practical and implementable solutions that would go a long way to forestall future occurrence.