House collapses in Abuja
By oladeji paul sunday
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, June /21, 06
ABUJA—Athree-storey
building housing two churches collapsed
yesterday in Abuja. The
building was situated at 68, Aminu Kano Crescent, Wuse II. Time was 11.45a.m. However, no life was lost in the incident which damaged property worth several millions of naira. Occupants were left in tears and agony. Musical equipment belonging to the two churches were trapped in the rubbles of the building.
Vanguard gathered that the building started giving signs that a major disaster was on the way in the last two weeks when the occupants including the pastors noticed some cracks. The approached the landlord of the house to inform him of the ugly development.
The landlord reportedly went there with a building engineer who advised that the building could be strengthened. Based on this advice, the landlord invited a structure engineer to come and mend the cracks to strengthen the building.
Pastor of one of the churches, Pastor Yinka Yusuf, who spoke with newsmen was thankful to the Almighty God that no life was lost when the house collapsed. He said the church, which occupied the first floor of the building, was usually filled during Sunday’s service.
Pastor Yusuf, who claimed to have been attending to about 50 members on the daily basis in the church, said he decided to declare a work free day yesterday because the church just ended a week-long programme on Sunday.
"We have lost millions of naira, but we thank God that today (yesterday) I declared a public holiday. I told them nobody should come to the office. I was the only person in the office and immediately I came out of the building following the alarm raised by the people down stirs, it collapsed.
“I declared a public holiday because we just finished a programme and I wanted them to rest. I have never done that but today (yesterday), I am sure the Lord just told me to do that if not people would have been here today (yesterday) for counselling and everything, but I just said nobody should come to the office today (yesterday).
“We are just waiting to see the owner of the building and the lawyer, from there we will know what to do,” he said.
The coordinator of the second church, Pastor Ifeanyi Obia said the building had given sufficient notice that it would collapse any moment.
At the time of filling this report, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Aliyu Doma and his team were still at the site of the building. He told Vanguard that, the police were still mobilising to unearth the circumstances surrounding the collapse.