Evans Ugoh, the Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in Owerri, Imo State, says government and regulatory agencies are responsible for the incessant collapse of buildings in Imo State recently.
Ugoh made the allegation after an evaluation of the buildings, which collapsed in parts of Owerri early in July.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria in Owerri on Thursday that the Imo State Government and its regulatory agencies should be blamed for not supervising building projects.
In Owerri West Local Government Area, a three storey building under construction collapsed in Obinze on July 5 and another three storey building collapsed in Umuguma on July 7.
On July 8, a one storey building collapsed in Oforola, Owerri West Local Government Area, killing three members of a family, while another three storey building collapsed on July 9 in Owerri North Local Government Area.
The coordinator said Owerri Capital Development Authority had failed in its mandate and contributed immensely to the incessant building collapse in the state.
Ugoh said: “I want to use this opportunity to call on the National Assembly to give the National Building Code Bill a speedy consideration.
“The measure becomes necessary because we do not have laws to prosecute those who compromise building standards.
“OCDA is more interested in revenues but fails to know that it has the mandate to supervise contractors and insist on standards.”
Evans said investigation conducted by the agency showed that most of the collapsed buildings did not have approved plans.
He decried a situation where OCDA could allow a building without an approval being raised up to three floors without interception from regulatory agencies.
He said if government and its agencies were effective in site inspection, three persons would not have died in the collapse in Oforola.
He said: “We know that contractors usually compromise building standards to make more gains but it is the duty of government to identify such buildings and punish the contractor.
“Government should wake up because virtually everybody is in serious apprehension of this development and if we don’t checkmate our contractors, we may have ourselves to blame.”
In her reaction, Dr Chika Nnajiofor, the Chairman of OCDA, said the collapsed buildings did not have approval.
Nnajiofor said OCDA had ordered the stoppage of work on three of the buildings before the collapse of the structures.
She said government was probing the incidents and added that OCDA was regularly discharging its responsibilities.