Three-storey building collapses in Rivers

  

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…Family escapes unhurt
From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Tragedy was yesterday averted for the family of Mr. Cliff Ejims of No 4 Ekere Street, Rumuobiakni, in Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers State. In what seemed a rare favour from God, the family was saved from an imminent death in a three-storey building which collapsed yesterday. The incident occurred at the wee hours when members of the family and other occupants of the compound were asleep. Although no casualty was recorded in the incident, the building was in rubbles and other apartments within the premises also destroyed. Narrating his experience, Mr. Ejims, who works offshore, said his wife, Antonia called him exactly at 12:15am that she heard strange sounds from the building. Ejims said he instructed his wife to evacuate their three children from the house immediately, before removing his Honda car which was parked inside the compound. Shortly, his wife informed him that the building had collapsed, and she was able to bring out the children and the vehicle. “It’s a miraculous work of God. You cannot believe that my family came out in this incident. Even, my elder brother’s building, Mr. Anebon Ejims was destroyed. However, he has reported the matter to the Police and he had also arrived at a consensus with the owner of the building. Meanwhile, the Ghanaian engineer handling the job has disappeared. According to Cliff, several attempts to get him on phone, failed. Narrating, her story, Mrs. Anthonia Ejims told Sunday Sun that initially when she heard the noise, she thought it was from armed robbers. “I was sleeping and I was hearing sounds outside. I thought somebody was stealing.” She said later, her neighbor drew her attention again to the sound, and when she looked at the building a block, fell down. “I was able to bring out my children who are ages seven, five and a year and nine months old. Immediately I drove the car out, the building went down completely.” What God did is too awesome. I don’t deserve it. It was as if God was holding the building waiting for me to bring everybody out. Everything went down the same time. The neighbor alleged that they had earlier complained that the foundation of the building was not strong. When contacted, the River State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Benjamin Ugwuegbulam (DSP) confirmed the incident. He said investigation on the cause of the collapsed building is on-going.

SOURCE: 4 August 2012.