Town planners seek stiffer penalty for building collapse offenders

Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) has urged the Federal Government to consider introducing stiffer punishment for anyone found violating building ethics.

Its president, Nathaniel Atebije, who noted that the impunity had resulted in several building collapse, added capital punishment for offenders would possibly force people in the production process of buildings to strictly comply with extant regulations.

He made the call while reacting to the incessant building collapse across the federation at the quarterly press briefing of the association, yesterday, in Abuja.

Atebije said: “The pain is that many times, the victims of these building collapse lose their lives. We may not know what these people who are killed during this collapse might have contributed to the economy of the country.

“People, who are working on building sites, are also humans. But because of the value we attach to life, Nigerians are left to be wasted because of this carelessness.

“So that is why we are saying life is life and let it be life for life. In some countries, when a man is found to be corrupt, he is killed even though that might be very drastic. We may not be advocating for that, but let there be punishment that will be enough to deter other people from committing such offence.”