FG ready to prosecute building collapse perpetrators — Minister

Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ahmed Dangiwa says the ministry will henceforth ensure the prosecution of persons responsible for building collapse in the country.

Dangiwa said this during a review meeting of recommendations of the ministry’s building collapse committee alongside regulatory bodies in the built environment.

He said that the measure would ensure proper investigation and prosecution of culprits.

The minister charged the Ministry’s Committee on Building Collapse to develop a checklist of professionals involved in the construction process.

This, he said, was to ease investigation and identifying the culprits.

“You must come up with a checklist of things to observe during inspection or assessment of building collapse and there must be a column to apportion blame to whom is culpable.

“The checklist must ensure quality assurance of the design, concrete quality and soil tests before the construction”, he said.

Dangiwa said that the checklist should also cover who designed the building, who certified the designer, who approved the design and who supervised the construction.

He said that this was to identify those culpable to stop the embarrassing tales of building collapse in the country.

“Once there is building collapse, we should immediately move there with our checklist, identify it and fill in.

“Once that is done, you can independently sit down and identify the culprit and support it with tangible evidence that this is the person that hasn’t done the correct thing.

“It should reveal either the design had not been done or if the professional is not certified or development control has not given approval or supervision was not done by a professional and if the building was converted to different use,” he noted.

Dangiwa said that the checklist, when developed, would be presented to the National Council on Housing for all to understand and be carried along in the implementation.

He asked the regulatory bodies in the built environment to forward their submissions and inputs to the Committee on Building Collapse set up by the ministry for consideration and inclusion in the checklist.

Commenting on the committee’s recommendations, the Chairman of the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Mr Samson Opaluwah, commended the minister for the initiative.

Opaluwah said that the committee presented 12 recommendations for consideration.

These are reconstitution of the National Building Code Advisory Committee and the review of the acts establishing architects and builders councils.

He said that this would make them more effective in curbing quackery.

He said that other recommendations included the implementation of punitive measures and sanctions for professional negligence and regulatory bodies to collaborate in event of collapse, among others.

“Before, when there was an incident of building collapse, nothing was done to it .

“However, this initiative shows that the Federal Government and the ministry are concerned and ready to tackle this issue to ensure safety and security of lives and property,” he said.

It was reported that many of the regulators advocated for the implementation of punitive measures on those found wanting to curb the menace of building collapse in the country.

There has also been a call on the ministry to resuscitate the training schools for artisans and technicians to train them to follow the specifications in the drawings while doing their work to ensure a perfect job.