President Muhammadu Buhari has for rescue operations to be stepped up at the site of a 21-story building that collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos highbrow area on Monday, trapping many workers.
In a statement by his spokesman, Femi Adesina, the Nigerian president also urged that emergency institutions to be available to help that are rescued.
At least four dead bodies have been pulled out of the rubble so far, while two survivors have been rescued. Many more people are still believed to be trapped under the rubble.
Meanwhile, facts have emerged that the construction company that was handling the building withdrew its services last year due to differences between it and the developer of the house.
Prowess Engineering Limited, the company that started the construction work on the ill-fated building, actually withdrew its services in February 2020.
The company said it withdrew its services because it no longer shared the same vision with its client believed to be Fourscore Heights Limited as addressed in the letter.
The company had previously constructed two other buildings for its client on the same location but said it couldn’t guarantee the integrity of the third from anything above the fourth floor.
The letter titled, ‘Re: Proposed Gerrard Terraces For Fourscore Limited,’ was signed by the company’s managing director, Muritala Olawale.
“This letter is to formally inform you of the withdraw of our structural consultancy service from the above-named project. We arrived at this decision due to the fact that we no longer share the same vision with you as our client in terms of how the project is being executed,” the company wrote
“We can guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings and also work done up to the fourth floor of the third building supervised by us provided specifications have been met in terms of the required concrete strength. This we do not have control over as we do not have the concrete cube test results of each stage of the building to date. Also, note that we are not taking responsibility for any other construction errors that may have occurred over time on the project.
“Furthermore, we request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project.
“We regret this decision and the lost opportunity to do business together. We look forward to future cooperation in other projects.”
