A woman and her 14-year-old daughter have reportedly lost their lives after a three-storey building collapsed in Anambra State. The collapsed building was under construction at Anata Anaba, Okpoko, in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra. The incident, which occurred around 9:45 pm, trapped both mother and daughter inside their neighbouring apartment. Eyewitnesses said the building made a loud noise, with its walls cracking, before it suddenly came crashing down.
Emergency responders rescued some people trapped in the rubble and took them to the hospital. An eyewitness told Punch, “The woman and her daughter were in their apartment in a nearby bungalow when the three-storey building collapsed and trapped them. Before the building caved in, it made a loud noise as the walls started making cracking noises before falling one after the other.”
Residents raised concerns about the construction, arguing that the land made it unstable for a 3-storey building. source:punch They claimed the initial engineer who handled the project advised the builder to limit the structure to two floors because of the ground conditions; however, the builder ignored the warning. The collapse killed the landlady of the nearest building and her youngest daughter.
The Anambra State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Chijioke Ojukwu, described the incident as unfortunate. Ojukwu visited the site with Nobel Igwe and blamed the collapse on substandard materials. He said the authorities had previously issued a stop-work order on the building.
