Five out of nine persons working at a construction site at Umumbi autonomous community in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State have been confirmed dead.

The three-storey building that was being constructed collapsed on them Friday afternoon as they were working at the building.

Three people were said to have mounted the roof while five others were plastering the ground floor as one of them had stepped out to go and buy food for other members of the team.

Sources within the community told our correspondent that the building, whose construction work was at the roofing stage, collapsed at about 10am.

It was gathered that the bodies of the deceased persons were all recovered at about 10 pm on Friday night following intensive search and deployment of a number of heavy duty excavating equipment by the state government in the effort to see whether the lives of those trapped could be saved.

It was gathered that three bodies were initially recovered at about 7pm while the other two bodies were recovered at about 10pm to end the search operation.

Two of the workers retrieved from the rubble were said to be blood brothers who had only arrived the construction site the previous day to begin work on Friday, only for them to be trapped less than eight hours after they began work at the site.

The owner of the building was said to be outside the country while the project was being supervised by his siblings.

The Deputy President General Obingwu non-indigenes association, Chief Anthony Anekwe confirmed the death of the five workers, saying it was unfortunate that such a number of persons would meet their death at a place they had gone to find food for members of their families.

He also confirmed that their bodies had been deposited at the morgue.

A building expert, Engr. Chinedu Okwara, said the building collapse might not be unconnected with the use of substandard materials and inability of the owner of the building to use the services of qualified and certified building engineer.

The Chairman of Ukwa West Local Government Council, Newman Azu, in a telephone interview, confirmed the collapse of the building and the death of the construction workers.

Azu, who disclosed that he mobilised his team to ensure the rescue of the workers, said that the state government would begin investigation to know the remote cause of the building collapse. (The Nation)

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