Building collapse: Experts want culprits prosecuted

The experts who spoke at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Lagos State branch annual conference held in Lagos said until people begin to face the consequences of their actions in the event of building collapse, buildings will continue to go down.One of those experts who spoke on the issue is the Managing Director/CEO Kresta […]

The experts who spoke at the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Lagos State branch annual conference held in Lagos said until people begin to face the consequences of their actions in the event of building collapse, buildings will continue to go down.
One of those experts who spoke on the issue is the Managing Director/CEO Kresta Laurel Limited, Engr. Dideolu Falobi.
He said people should begin to go to jail to serve as deterrent to those who compromise building standards.
He said those saddled with the responsibility of enforcing standards in construction must be alive to their responsibilities.
“It has to be a combination of efforts and there must be strict enforcement of regulations.
“Also every professional in the chain must enforce standards. There are a lot of professionals in the chain – builders, town planners, architects, engineers – all of these must do their job at both the point of approval and supervision of the building,” he said.
He lamented that many people who don’t have the needed funds to build properly are building houses.
“There are a lot of private developers who because they want to cut cost, will find a way of circumventing all these regulations. About 99.9 percent of those developing properties are not engineers. They are businessmen and they build houses below the standards,” he said.
Also speaking in the same vein, Engr. Oludayo Oluyemi, the Lagos Branch Chairman, NSE said quackery is responsible for the majority of the building collapse cases in Nigeria.
“In most cases, professional engineers are not involved. Normally when a building is being put up, the architect does the design, the structural engineer provides the drawings for the construction, the mechanical and electrical engineers do their own designs too.
“When you are into construction, you must have structural engineer or a builder resident on site monitoring the construction work every day. But in most instances, this is missing in Nigeria. Most times even the town planning officers don’t go to the site. The various state governments must employ a lot of engineers to be able to stop building collapse.” he suggested.
“On stopping quackery, the NSE is not empowered to arrest anybody. The law enforcement agents should be called to do their jobs,” he said.
He explained, “When a building collapses, the Council of the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) sends representatives to investigate and send their reports to the bodies concerned. But until people are charged to court for manslaughter in the event of a building collapse, we will continue to have building collapse,” he concluded.