Niger Delta University Lecture Hall Collapsed In Bayelsa State, Several Escaped Death

* An uncompleted lecture hall collapsed at Niger
Delta University, which is owned by the Bayelsa
State government, collapsed on Friday, but there
were no human casualties, several sources said.
“The collapsed building however injured one
construction worker who is in the danger list at a
hospital,” one source revealed.
Several sources told SaharaReporters that some
50 people who usually squat in the uncompleted
building were lucky that none of them got killed in
the collapse.
Some sources blamed Governor Seriake Dickson
for retaining quack contractors who use
substandard construction material. One worker
said the site engineer was notorious for cutting
corners with materials as well as compromising on
standardized building code.
“The motives of the site engineer are
questionable,” said a worker. “He keeps flouting
standard formulae for mixing concrete. He uses
more sand than chippings. And, in mixing cement
and sand, he is known to compromise quality.”
Another critic said it was no surprise that the
building went down. “Thank God it happened
during the day when most of the people who sleep
in the building at night were out,” another
construction worker told SaharaReporters.
.
The Bayelsa branch of the Nigerian Institute of
Architects (NIA) weighed in, ascribing the collapse
to the use of quacks on the project. The NIA’s
chairperson, Stella Rain, led a team of
architectural experts to assess the building. Ms.
Rain stated that the group intends to conduct a
detailed investigation into the collapsed building.
Professor Humphrey Okonjo, the university’s vice
chancellor, said that the defects in the building
were detected by the university’s project
monitoring unit, but lamented that the problems
could not be fixed due to the uncooperative
attitude of some Bayelsa government officials.