FCT Residents in Gwarinpa District demand integrity test on estate buildings

Residents of Gwarinpa District in the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja under the aegis of ADKAN Estate Residents Association have called on the government to conduct structural integrity tests on all commercial buildings under construction along 6th Avenue.

The residents hinted that the government needs to ascertain the structural integrity of the existing buildings to forestall the sad incident that happened on February 2, 2023.

They lamented that corruption by government officials and deviation from the masterplan of the FCT as the cause for the recent building collapse in the neighbourhood.

It was gathered that about three persons were confirmed dead and 21 others rescued when a three-storey building under construction along 6th Avenue in the Gwarinpa area of Abuja, collapsed around 11.00 am on February 2, 2023.

ADKAN Estate Residents Association argued that the building collapse was not a natural disaster but a man-made one.

The chairman of the association, Kabir Akanbi, pointed out that the collapse of the building represented a culmination of the protracted trend of illegally converting buildings and green areas purposely designed as residences and public utilities for commercial purposes.

He explained that before the building collapse, residents had observed an rise in commercial buildings around the estate, contrary to the original design set in the Abuja Model City II plan, when the estate was first conceived.

He bemoaned that residents have had to contend with traffic congestion and rising insecurity due to the consequences of the illegal conversions.

According to him, “the collapse is the ugly and extreme manifestation of the ravenous appetite for commercialisation that has taken hold within our estate in recent years and which, apparently, has neither respect for legal boundaries nor peaceable habitation.”