An under-construction three-storey building collapsed in Port Harcourt’s Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State on Friday evening, marking the third such incident within two weeks.

The incident happened off Sani Abacha Road in the same council where a building in the Egbelu Mgbaraja area of the Ogbogoro Community collapsed on Monday.

Also, the latest incident follows another collapse last week in Iriebe in the same Obio-Akpor LGA, where fortunately no lives were lost.

Eyewitnesses said they heard a creaking sound before the building crumbled at around 4:00 pm on Friday.

“We were inside (a different building) when we suddenly heard the creaking sound as of a building going down,” a source who pleaded anonymity said.

“We quickly rushed out and saw that it was the building under construction close to a hotel (names withheld) that was going down.”

Another source said the collapse could be due to bad foundation and structural defect, saying, “The building was site on a swampy land. Builders around this area usually do proper sand filling before, but it was not so with this one.”

Worried by the incessant building collapse, the Rivers State Government has resolved to set up a task force to check the menace.

The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Evans Bipi disclosed this during an on-the-spot inspection of another collapsed three-storey building under construction in the Abacha Road axis of GRA Port-Harcourt.

Emeka Idika Kalu, a media aide to the commissioner, in a statement, said no life was lost in the latest building collapse which occurred on Friday 8 November 2024.

The building collapse came barely four days after a similar incident occurred in the Ogbogoro Community of Obio-Akpor LGA which claimed one life and severely injured two persons.

The Commissioner said the Taskforce would monitor all development sites in the State to ensure that developers strictly comply with the building laws and regulations of the state to prevent further building collapse.

Bipi also accused the developer of gross violation of the government-approved building plan by using substandard materials to raise a three-storey building in a waterlogged area.

He warned of tougher penalties against defaulters of the Physical Planning Development Law of the State to serve as a deterrent.

He also explained that by enforcing severe penalties the government aims to promote adherence to the law and prevent further building collapse in the state.

In the meantime, officials of the Rivers State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development have sealed the premises of the three-storey building along the Abacha Road axis of GRA Port-Harcourt and invited the property developer and engineer for investigation.