5 Injured as Building Collapses in Benin City

05 Jun 2012

Governor Adams Oshiomhole

By Adibe Emenyonu

A three-storey building housing the state-owned Central Hospital, which is under construction, Monday collapsed, trapping two persons in the rubbles in Benin-City, Edo State.

But the state government said the collapsed building occurred as a result of the fact that one of the cranes collided with a freshly constructed beam, affecting a section of the multi-storey structure.

Five other members of staff of the construction firm, NCI Construction Company, who were also said to have sustained varying degrees of injuries, were immediately rushed to hospital’s accident and emergency ward for medical attention.

The collapsed building, according to investigation, was the new accident and emergency ward of the hospital, which formed part of the massive re-construction of the hospital embarked on by the state government.

The Central Hospital, Benin-City was built in 1902 by the colonial government in Nigeria.

Although sources claimed the collapse may have been due to structural defect, the Majority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Philip Shuaibu, told journalists Monday that the collapse was caused by a crane which was lifting building materials to the top floor but unfortunately impacted on the building.

Initial rescue operation at the scene of the incident
occurred few minutes after the incident was slow and haphazard, as there was no equipment to carry out the operation.

Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Louis Odion, in a statement, said: “A slight mishap occurred today at the construction site of the new Central Hospital complex, Benin City, as one of the cranes collided with a freshly constructed beam, affecting a section of the multi-storey structure.

Out of seven workers trapped in the rubbles, six had been rescued as at press time, while relief workers were working frantically to free the last man, an expatriate.  The ongoing building construction, which is being undertaken by Sincies Chimentin Limited, an Italian firm, is part of an infrastructural renewal programme initiated by the Adams Oshiomhole administration to upgrade the hospital constructed originally in 1903.”

SOURCE: ThisDay, 5 June 2012. http://www.thisdaylive.com