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Building collapse: FCTA meets experts to avert future occurrence

Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) via its Department of Development Control has met with experts in the building sector to address cases of building collapse, undeveloped plots and abandoned structures.

The Director Department of Development Control, Mukhtar Galadima, disclosed to newsmen in Abuja, on Wednesday, that the Administration was concerned with ending factors that lead to substandard projects.

He said: “As a responsible organisation we have to be proactive in addressing the cases of building collapse, we have to work with professional bodies that are regulating agencies.

“We are exchanging views on how to stop the menace of building collapse in the Federal Capital Territory.

“The meeting will help us to constitute a committee that will make suggestions on tackling the issues, even in the past but this time around we are going to expand it.

“We will make it a continuous engagement, discussion and supervision. It will help us share responsibility as well as functionality.”

Galadima disclosed that the committee which will soon be constituted will also examine issues surrounding abandoned structures and undeveloped plots and come up with solutions.

Engr. Cyril Nwafor, who represented the President Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), urged the National Assembly to implement the recommendations sent to the house in 2010.

He listed the recommendations to include the involvement of only registered professionals to handle projects and discipline those behind failed projects.

Other professional bodies at the meeting are the Architect Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON) and many others.

. TheWitness