5th June, 2012
Edo state government has postponed indefinitely re-construction work on the century-old hospital building in Benin City, southsouth Nigeria.
This followed the death of an expatriate after part of the building collapsed on Monday evening on him and six other construction workers.
The ultra-modern hospital building project was being handled by an Italian firm, Sincies Chimentin Ltd.
State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Francis Evbuomwan, who stated this at press conference in Benin City on Tuesday, confirmed that seven victims were trapped in the three storey building, out of which six were successfully rescued, while the Italian expatriate whose name is yet to be disclosed died before he could be rescued.
According to Mr. Evbuomwan, the lifeless body of the Italian Company Project Manager, was pulled out of the ruble at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
His body has since been deposited at the mortuary of Stella Obasanjo Children Hospital in Benin.
While describing the incident as unfortunate, the commissioner disclosed that a crane snapped and landed on one of the beams under construction on the third floor.
He said the decision to suspend work on site is to enable government carry out full scale investigation by structural engineers to determine the level of collateral damage to avoid a similar tragedy in future.
—Jethro Ibileke/Benin City