Twenty-five-year-old three-storey residential building collapse in Abia

About twenty-five-year-old three storey residential building has collapsed in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.

The incident happened at No. 86 Nkwere Street off Umuchu Road in Umuahia North Local Government Area.

While no life was lost, occupants of the said building at the time of filing the report were said to have lost valuables worth several amounts of cash in an incident that left many stranded and homeless.

Many that spoke over the development blamed poor and substandard building materials used by the contractor.

Some of the occupants who were full of emotion said that they noticed some cracks on the wall of the building, 24hrs before the incident happened, but never thought it was a major fault.

According to one of the tenants, by the time they woke up the next day, they noticed that the pillar of the house leading to the staircase had cracked, while the iron used in erecting the pillar had already bent.

The tenant said that the faulty pillar led them to go round the building to discover that some parts of the building had started caving into the ground.

The tenant said that they became apprehensive and started moving their properties from their flats.

According to him, some of the co-tenants could not finish moving out their properties before the building finally collapsed.

He said that while the situation has left them homeless, they were happy that no life was lost.

He appealed to the state government to come to their aids as they face uncertainty over their next line of action due to the paucity of funds in renting a new apartment in the face of the financial challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.