… establishes surveillance whistle-blowers to tackle building collapse
The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the regulatory body governing the practice of engineering, has said that Nigeria recorded 22 building collapses between January and July 2024.
The President of COREN, Prof. Sadiq Abubakar made this known at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
The news conference themed: “The Incessant Spate of Building Collapse in Nigeria in Recent Times-A Call for Sustainable Collaboration by All Stakeholders.”
Abubakar stated that from January to 14 July, alone, at least 22 cases of building collapse have been reported in Nigeria with Lagos accounting for 27.27 percent, Abuja and Anambra 18.18 percent each.
He added that Ekiti and Plateau followed with 9.09 percent each and Kano, Taraba and Niger states accounted for 4.55 percent each.
“Records also showed that Lagos takes the lead in the incidences of building collapse.
“As a matter of fact, over 91 buildings have collapsed resulting in the death of over 354 persons in Lagos from 2012 to date.
“Similarly in Abuja, about 30 buildings have collapsed from 1993 till date resulting in the death of more than 64 persons and injury of many.
“The most recent occurrences of building collapse close to DMGS Onitsha, Anambra State on June 12 and that of a school (Saint Academy) in Plateau on July 13 where 22 students died and 134 injured, as well as the building collapse in Kubwa, Abuja,” Abubakar said.
He said that the incidents were worrisome.
According to him, this calls for deep reflection and collaboration of all stakeholders in stemming the tide.
“While we commiserate with all victims and families, we want to commend the efforts of all emergency and security services for their prompt response at the time,’’ he added.
According to Abubakar, the leading causes of building collapse vary from one location to the other.
He said some buildings collapse as a result of aging and from some investigations and research conducted over time, the use of substandard construction materials and structural failure were also responsible.
He said that other factors included: illegal change of use of buildings, illegal addition of floors, quackery, inadequate or lack of supervision and oversight.
He added other factors were faulty foundations or lack of conduct of soil/geotechnical investigation, sharp and corrupt practices amongst others.
Abubakar also commended the respective affected state governments for constituting a panel of enquiry to look into the various cases to find out the immediate and remote causes and prevent future occurrences.
“This is not the time for apportioning blame or contest of superiority within the built environment but a time for all stakeholders to unite and proffer workable and lasting solutions, particularly in the prevention of building collapses.
“All professionals within the built environment have a role to play in this.
“In this regard we have identified and categorised many stakeholders that we will be engaging shortly,’’ he said.
The President said that the proliferation of illegal miners even within residential areas as reported in some quarters was a danger to the structural stability of buildings.
He added that the council had, therefore, urged affected states to take urgent steps to reverse the trend adding that it was also time to enforce the compulsory insurance of some buildings under construction.
Abubakar said that perturbed by the incessant and avoidable incidents of building collapse in Nigeria and loss of lives in recent times, COREN had deemed to make major moves.
He said that COREN had taken some steps in monitoring and preventing building collapse by training and licensing Engineering Regulation Monitoring (ERM) inspectors.
Abubakar added that COREN had reconstituted its Council Committee on Engineering Regulation Monitoring (ERM) and added role of enforcement to its responsibility in line with the amended COREN Act.
He said that COREN had constituted ERM&E Task Force at regional levels including Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano, FCT, Gombe and Lagos among other steps to tackle building collapse.
Abubakar further stated that COREN has approved the establishment of surveillance whistle-blowers to monitor buildings to tackle incessant building collapse in Nigeria.
Abubakar said that the move became imperative in order to put in place stringent measures to address building collapse.
He added that the council was now working on developing the modalities on how the whistle blowers would commence operations so as to get it right.
“The Council has approved the establishment of engineering intelligence and surveillance whistle blowers to ease identifying sharp practices and distressed buildings.
“When we check the best global practice, you cannot be a regulator without whistle blowing .So we are now packaging the criteria and the protocols of their protection and what have you.
“It is going to be something decentralised at the state and regional levels because that is where the action is.
“With this whistle blowing, henceforth, building sites will be given a code or a number so as to ease traceability, for instance, construction site number 300 in Gwagwalada.’’
Abubakar said that the whistle-blowers would be given the identity of each site to closely monitor those not complying with the engineering rules.
“The whistle blowers will also reveal if the manager, contractor or the actors approved for the construction have been changed.
“In the case of change of such actors, the site workers will be authorised to stop work until it can be verified that the new people employed are qualified.
“I assure you; this blowing will soon start before the end of the year. We are being guided and facilitated by our international partners,’’ he said.
According to Abubakar, the investigation panel is in place and the disciplinary tribunal is also in place.
He added that COREN had initiated an effort to develop a critical mass of engineering infrastructure failure and forensic investigators.
He said that discussions were ongoing with the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) and the Chartered Institute of Fraud and Forensic Investigators (CIFFI) in that regard.
He encouraged the general public to share useful information with COREN and concerned authorities as soon as signs of distress were observed in any building so that proactive steps could be taken.
Abubakar said that most times when buildings collapse, it is barely the fault of engineers, this he said was because the building owners cut corners or changed the building plan or use.
He said that in cases where engineers were found culpable, there were engineering laws to penalise registered engineers, but there were no existing laws to hold defaulting building owners culpable.
He said that since 2019 till date, 10 engineers, six technologists and four artisans found guilty have been prosecuted and many were waiting.
He said that the major hindrance to prosecuting building collapse defaulters was the lack of professional investigators, adding that Nigeria did not have any.
“If you don’t have professionals that will go and check samples at the building collapse sites, it is difficult to prosecute.
“This I can tell you because I was a member of the Tribunal when I was a council member six, seven years ago, very difficult because you must prove beyond reasonable doubt.
“You find out that the easier one to do is design based failures because once there is a failure and the suspicion is on design we will pick the design because they are always there for experts, so that one is easy for us.
“A lot of the culprits are on materials, substandard, undersized materials and what have you.
“And in many instances we don’t have professional investigators, that is why many are going scot-free because there is nothing to hold them accountable since 90 percent of all the laws are targeted at the professionals.’’
Abubakar, therefore, emphasised the need to quickly commence the training, capacity development and licensing of professionally qualified investigators for the work.
He said that the council was already discussing with the National Assembly to seek ways to address the loophole in the engineering laws of Nigeria, especially through the amendment of the COREN Act to address the issues.
