Health
A section of a three-storey building under construction at the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia in Abia collapsed in the early hours of Thursday but recorded no casualty.
The Chief Medical Director of the facility, Prof. Azubuike Onyebuchi, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Umuahia saying the incident happened around 1.30 am.
He said the project was a modern Accident and Emergency building awarded to Home Option Construction Company Limited in 2019 at the cost of over N200 million.
Onyebuchi could not confirm the cause of the collapse, saying that he had yet to meet with the contractor and experts over the incident.
According to him, I woke up this morning and got a message from some of my staff members that part of the modern Accident and Emergency building had collapsed.
“So I came here and saw that the section that is harbouring the third floor, which is the Intensive Care Unit, which has been prepared for roofing, gave way from the middle, sparing the other sides.
“I am a layman. I don’t know what has caused this. I have sent for the contractor and consultant, who is supervising the job and my Works Department.
“They will give me professional advice on what happened so we can take it up from there and also inform the Board.”
Onyebuchi however, thanked God that no life was lost but expressed regret over the incident.
“It just happened, we will hold meetings to find out what actually went wrong so we can prevent it in future and also learn lessons from it.
“The building is under construction. It has not been handed over to us, so it is still with those handling it.
“It would have been more painful if it had been handed over to us and we were using it with both the patients and staff members inside there,” he said.
Onyebuchi said this was the first time the facility could record a building collapse noting that it was also the first contract the company was handling in the hospital.
NAN
– May 20, 2021 @ 15:09 GMT
Tags: New Accident/Emergency building of FMC Umuahia collapses- CMD confirms
