Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA), on Tuesday, asked The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) should fish out, arrest and prosecute some of its officials who compromise building standards and approve structures sited in flood-prone areas after the house owners had greased their palms, a civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has said.

HURIWA, in a statement on by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, on Tuesday, July 4, 2023, expressed worry over the continuous erection of houses and estates on flood channels within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), saying without the connivance of some government officials, the estate owners cannot successfully complete their structures.

The group also expressed concerns over the recurring collapse of buildings within Abuja, saying the latest collapse of a building in the Lifecamp area of the FCT again reinforced the fact that the FCTA officials are grossly indulging in compromise.

Nine persons were rescued by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) from the collapsed five-storey structure under construction on Monday afternoon.

The Incident of building collapse, the emphasized, has made it imperative to choose a Minister of the FCT by merit.

“Something is fishy within FCT Development Control Agency and this is why appointment of FCT Minister must be merit and competency based and not based on political patronage or regional bigotry,” it said.

Of late, building collapses have escalated with Abuja being one of the most affected places in Nigeria. According to the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, at least 62 building collapse catastrophes were recorded in 2022, causing 84 deaths and injuring 113 persons.

This is despite the housing deficit in Nigeria with more than 28 million Nigerians lacking access to decent and affordable housing, according to estimates by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria.

According to HURIWA, “Heads should roll and arrests and prosecution should follow immediately. Culpable FCTA officials should be quickly probed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for back-channel approval of buildings and estates that don’t meet structural quality and standards.”

“What’s going on with quality assurance and standardisation in the FCT building sub-sector? Is the development control agency moribund?,” HURIWA queried, adding: “These incessant collapses of buildings and frequent cases of floods in some estates call to question the integrity of the processes of awarding approvals to buildings and the technology for effectively enforcing standardisation in the building industry in the FCT.”

“Also, town planners, building control agencies at state and local government levels, as well as professional bodies in the construction and quality sector like the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Nigerian Society of Engineers, the Nigerian Institute of Building and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria must tight up regulatory oversight on new structures springing up all over the country,” the group suggested.

“Strong, punitive actions must be taken against corrupt officials who collude with quack engineers and desperate estate builders to endanger home owner just as it is done in South Korea, United Kingdom, and other parts of the world to deter deterrence that compromised and unsafe structures won’t be tolerated any longer,” it further suggested.