2 dead, 5 rescued in Abuja building collapse

By Salisu Sani-Idris/ Jacinta Nwachukwu

Two persons were confirmed dead on Friday, while five were rescued from rubble after a storey building collapsed in Kubwa Satellite town, FCT, Abuja.

The building, which was under construction at Hamza Abdullahi Street off Gado Nasco Road, equally housed a shopping mall.

The rescue operation was carried out by a combined team of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency.

Also among the rescue team were the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and others.

One of the residents, Mrs. Chinyere Okah, confirmed that the building collapsed on Thursday night at about 10:30 p.m.

The Director-General, FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Alhaji Abbas Idriss, confirmed that two persons lost their lives in the incident, while the trapped persons had been rescued.

Abbas explained that the agency received a distress call about the incident at 11.45 pm on Thursday evening and thereafter activated its stakeholders to the scene.

He revealed that five persons were rescued and taken to Kubwa District Hospital, noting that two of the patients had since been discharged.

“As a follow-up to the developing story of the collapsed building at Kubwa, a suburb in the FCT, the two trapped persons were fatally injured.

“The bodies of the two persons that lost their lives have been deposited at the Kubwa District Hospital mortuary. Their relatives have been identified and are making arrangements for their burial.

“The rescue operation at the collapsed site came to an end with five persons rescued alive, three with various degrees of injuries, while two unhurt and discharged from the Kubwa District Hospital,” he said.

He commended all the stakeholders for their prompt response and cooperation, including construction companies, which is in line with their corporate social responsibilities and mobilised all their resources to save lives.

He also lauded the security agencies for their vigilance and support for residents of the area during the rescue operations.

Idriss, however, appealed to developers to always obey the building code and warned residents to desist from living in uncompleted buildings.

NAN