No fewer than two persons have been confirmed dead, while 17 others
sustained various degrees of injury, yesterday, following another
building collapse at Urua Edet-Obo, a popular market at Ikot Akpatek,
in Onna Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
The incident occurred at Governor Udom Emmanuel’s country home in
Onna. The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Murtala Mani, confirmed the
incident to newsmen on telephone. He said: “Only two women died. An
old wall fell on them and unfortunately, they died,” adding that many
others had been taken to hospital for treatment. An eye witness
account said that corpses of the victims had been deposited at
Immanuel Hospital in Eket, a neighbouring local government area in the
state. Vanguard gathered that the market structures which were built
over six decades ago, had become weak and collapsed in the early hours
of yesterday. The incident happened, barely a week after a church
building tragedy that claimed the lives of dozens of worshippers at
Reigners’ Bible Church in Uyo on December 10. Some of the victims, who
sustained injuries were said to be mostly women, and have since been
resuscitated and were responding to treatment. According to the eye
witness, “The building of the market collapsed today (yesterday). Urua
Edet-Obo is an old market having been in existence for over 60 years.
It was only renovated three years ago.” Meanwhile, members of Nigerian
Institute of Town Planners, NITP, Akwa Ibom State chapter, rose from a
meeting, yesterday, condemning the building of Reigners Bible Church
in an area that was declared ‘a conservation area’by the state
government in 2002 because of the erosion prone nature of the area.
“We did not expect professionals in the building environment to be
involved in the development of such a structure in that area, without
declassification and due approval from the governor of the state,”
they said. The institute in a statement by its acting Chairman, Dr.
Beulah Ofem, said records at its disposal showed that the development
at the site was carried out outside the ambit of the law as several
contravention and stop-work-notices dated March 6, 2013, July 19,
2014, March 1, 2016, July 20, 2016 and demolition marking/notice
issued to the developer of the project on August 16, 2016, were
ignored.

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