Carpenter Killed in Another Building Collapse in Port Harcourt

A yet to be identified carpenter, who was working on a two-storey building that collapsed in Ogbogoro area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State has died. The victim was buried in the rubble of the building.

Rescue operations personnel had to deploy an excavator to exhume his remains from the crash site on Tuesday.

The Ogbogoro building collapse came two weeks after another multi-storey building collapsed at Iriebe in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The new Rivers State Chapter Chair of Nigerian Institute of Architects, Tosan Omatsone, who led the newly sworn-in Executive Committee of the Rivers State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Architects to the scene of the collapse, expressed concern over the inadequate supervision of building projects in the state. They emphasised the urgent need for the inclusion of qualified professionals to ensure proper execution and enhance the quality and safety of construction projects.

Omatsone highlighted the importance of fostering partnerships between Architects and the government, beginning with the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development.

“There is a need for built industry professionals to operate within their specific areas of expertise. For instance, licensed architects should be responsible for reviewing architectural drawings as part of the building approval process,” she said.

She stressed that this approach ensures strict adherence to standards, with proper checks in place to confirm that qualified professionals are engaged both at the design stage and during project execution.

“We must put these measures in place to prevent further loss of lives. Every life lost means the loss of valuable resources and money wasted due to improper practices. Our goal is to make things right,” Tosan added.

The Chief Security Officer of Ogbogoro, Kingdom John, told the NIA team that the building collapsed at about 2pm on Monday while the carpenter and other artisans were working at the site. Other workers had escaped as the building collapsed.

John alleged that the engineer supervising the project often argued with the owner of the building over the number of bags of cement and quality of other material used in construction. “As a community we are not happy. We use this opportunity to appeal to government to investigate the incident. We don’t want to see another building collapse again

Omatsone said from information gathered at the site, inappropriate materials were used for the project. “We will have this kind of situation a lot because building projects are not something to play with. A lot of people take things for granted. People just go to site and build. If you don’t have proper plans and approvals and monitoring, these things will keep recurring.”