By: Oluwatosin Adesola
The Nigeria Police has arrested the Landlord of collapsed building at Fanibi area of Akure, the Ondo State capital for investigation over the incident; SUNSHINETRUTH can report.
This is just as a 90-year-old woman, identified as Mrs Rhoda Olom was confirmed dead in the collapsed building early Tuesday.
It was also gathered that the six grandchildren of the late nonagenarian who were with her when the incident happened were injured in the incident that occurred at about 3:00am on tuesday.
An eyewitness however told our correspondent that the entire building did not collapse but an apartment of the old building where the deceased and her grandchildren were living.
It was gathered that the collapsed apartment was attached to the old main building from the back few years back without an approval from the state Minister of Physical Planning and Urban Development.
The son of the deceased, Mr Benson Olom, confirmed his five children were rescued from the building, saying “the building collapsed and my mother, died instantly, and her remains had been taken out”
Blaming that the landlord of the building for tampering with the beam of building, he said, “the landlord recently came and tampared with the beam of the building, he said he wants to turn the downstairs to to flat without making proper provision to sustain the building”.
“One of my children who sustained a head injury has been taken to the hospital and I was told she is going to undergo a surgery. I want government and well meaning Nigerians to come to my rescue,” he appealed.
An occupant of the building, Mr Adedayo Jayeoba said the building collapsed at about 3am while everyone had slept, killing the old woman.
He said, “we saw that the apartment had already cracked and this morning, it collapsed and killed the grandma. So we have to rush here to rescue the grandchildren of the deceased . So immediately we reported the matter to the government and they had come to take the corpse to the mortuary while the police have arrested the landlord. “
A leader of the monitoring team of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering of Nigeria, Mr Ojo Abayomi, said, the collapsed apartment of the building was an illegal structure and quality materials were not used to erect the collapsed apartment.
He said, “with what has been observed , quality materials were not used for the building , even the arrangement of the iron rods were very bad. With the information we gathered around, the foundation of the building was not strong.
“If the landlord has engaged a qualified engineer in building the apartment, the COREN would have punished the engineer. But now that qualified engineer was not involved, the owner of the building has to be prosecuted for the loss of life that has involved.”
One of the surviving grandchild of the deceased, James Olom, said he was not in the house when the incident happened.
He also said the remains of the deceased had been deposited at a mortuary.
It was gathered that the landlord of the building has been arrested by the men of the state police command for interrogation.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, who visited the scene of the incident, in company of the Divisional Police Officer of Fanibi Police Division, confirmed the arrest and said investigation had commenced on the matter.
“We have arrested the landlord and investigate the matter , if after investigation, we found out that he has violated the law in any area, then he would be prosecuted.”
Meanwhile, the remaining part of the had had been sealed off by the officials state Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development while the other occupants had asked to vacate the house with immediate effect.
