One dead, four rescued as four-storey building collapses in Enugu

Enugu — One person has been confirmed dead while four others have been rescued after a four-storey building under construction collapsed in the early hours of Sunday at Independence Layout, Enugu.

The building, located along Ogbaru Street/Alvan Ikokwu Street, reportedly trapped workers who were sleeping at the site, with emergency agencies deploying rescue equipment to search the rubble and determine whether anyone remained trapped.

The Chairman of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), Barr. Uche Anya, who visited the scene, said the authority had discovered serious structural integrity issues and non-compliance with the building’s 2021 approval during an inspection.

Anya said the property had been approved in 2021, before the present administration, but was subsequently inspected as part of the authority’s routine stocktaking of construction projects.

According to him, he personally issued the first “stop work order” after the inspection revealed violations, leading to the sealing of the site, which had remained sealed for about six months.

“This property collapsed in the early hours of the morning. We arrived here around 6am. When we arrived, we met one of the securitymen, who said that six people slept in the uncompleted property, but one of them was not around when the incident occurred,” Anya said.

He said government emergency services subsequently arrived and commenced rescue operations, adding that four people had been taken to hospital for treatment while rescue efforts continued because authorities believed another person could still be trapped.

Anya said the property had been approved in 2021, but inspection showed “serious integrity issues” and non-compliance with the approval.

“I personally issued the first ‘stop work order,’ which, due to the violation, resulted in our sealing the place over the last six months,” he said.

He added that within the previous 30 to 40 days, a representative of the owner, whom he said lived abroad, had been interfacing with the authority on measures to remedy the identified problems before the building collapsed.

Anya said the owner’s representative had been handed over to the police to assist with the investigation, stressing that the action was “not necessarily for detention, but to help with the investigation.”

He described the incident as “a very unfortunate situation.”

Also speaking at the scene, the Director of the Enugu State Fire Service, Engr. Okwudiri Oha, commended the swift response of the Red Cross, Enugu State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), ECTDA, Enugu State Ambulance Services, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

Oha also commended the mobilisation of rescue equipment, including bulldozers and excavators, which he said facilitated the rescue operation.

“As a rescue officer, what we did was to ask the security man how many people are here. He said that there were supposed to be six. One person had left before it happened,” Oha said.

He said the rescue team initially recovered four persons, two of whom sustained minor injuries, and took them to a health facility for medical checks.

“Then, as you have seen, we have been working. The last person we just recovered was the fifth person. It is when you get to a health facility that you know whether he is still alive,” he said.

The NEMA Information Officer in Enugu, Mr Ezeani Nnanyelugo, also confirmed that six people were expected to be at the site when the building collapsed.

“When we came to the scene of the incident, we found out that there were a total of six persons that were supposed to be on the site. One person was not on the site as at the time of the incident, while the four others were rescued and taken to the hospital and have been stabilised,” Nnanyelugo said.

He added that a body had subsequently been recovered and taken to the hospital for confirmation of whether the person was dead or alive.

The Executive Secretary of SEMA, Mrs Chinasa Mbah, said although five people were believed to have been present when the incident occurred, the entire wreckage would be excavated to ensure that no survivor or body was left behind.

“We are going to excavate everything because you can see the machines that government brought. We will excavate everything to ensure no survivor or body is left,” Mbah said.

The latest reports from the scene said rescue and excavation operations were continuing to establish the full extent of the incident.

The incident has also raised renewed concerns about compliance with building standards and enforcement of construction regulations in Enugu State.