Tragedy struck in the Idumoza Community of Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State, as a hotel building under construction collapsed and claimed the life of its owner, identified as Andrew Isesere.
Information gathered on Sunday revealed that the incident occurred on Friday while more than 20 workers were on site. The workers narrowly escaped being caught in the collapse, though the owner was not as fortunate.
His remains were recovered from the debris on Sunday morning, two days after the collapse.
According to a source within the community, the incident shocked residents, who mourned the loss of a young entrepreneur.
“This is a sad occurrence and it is painful that a young person had to die this way. The site workers were lucky as 20 of them narrowly escaped death,” the source said.
“The uncompleted building collapsed on Friday and the body of the deceased was pulled out on Sunday. It is so sad,” the source added.
However, concerns have emerged regarding the quality of construction at the site. A neighbour, Andrew Inegbebor, revealed that the deceased had been warned about using low-grade materials and failing to engage professional supervision.
“The owner was told he was using low-quality materials. He used 12 mm instead of 16 mm rods for pillars. There was no base basket at the pillars. Look at the result,” Inegbebor stated.
He further said, “The building collapsed because of substandard materials that were used. There was no engineer on site. The deceased supervised the house. The house later collapsed and killed the owner but the workers escaped.”
When contacted for confirmation, the Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, Moses Yamu, said he had not yet received any official briefing on the incident as of Sunday evening.
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